Headstrong
by degrassichick
Summary: Manuela is not having a good year. She got framed with murder and is now going to an all boy's detention camp in the middle of the desert! And the worst thing has happened, she comes face to face with the brother that abandoned her. -Complete-
1. Welcome To Camp Green Lake

**Headstrong**

**A/N: Okay, I tried writing a different Holes story earlier, which this chick (Devilish668) hated, so I'm going to make a new one, and it WILL be original. It still Holes, and it's still a romance...but in a much different sense.**

**Chapter 1**

- - - - -

"Damn, this bus smells," I muttered to myself. As I climbed on the bus, I turned back and looked at the bitch that put me here, my best friend Cassidy, straight in the eyes.

My name is Manuela Farber. I'm half Mexican, half American (hence last name, obviously makes my dad American, my mom Mexican). I am 16 years old and live in the best place in the world, San Antonio, Texas.

- - - - -

Just a week ago I was having the best possible day of my life. I was hanging out with my best friends, Cassidy, Dillon, Justin, and April. We were all hanging out at Six Flags Fiesta Texas having a great time. As soon as we got off of the Superman Krypton Coaster, Cassidy and Dillon decided to have a little fun.

Fun my ass.

Dillon has been in a bad crowd for almost ever, even though his dad is rich and owns one of the most popular businesses in San Antonio. But he never would pay attention to him; it's a deprived devilish child thing I guess. He pulled out a gun from his duffle bag for no reason whatsoever and fired it off, just expecting to have fun with it and scare people. Cassidy joined in too, using the other gun they had brought. April and Justin (who had no intention of ever being in a gang) ran off and then the worst thing happened.

Cassidy's gun was really loaded, and she shot a small girl in the stomach, she almost died right there.

Dillon and Cassidy gaped and dropped their guns, running out of the park like mad-mans, I started to run to, but I tripped over one of the guns and landed on the pavement.

I felt to big arms grabbing my smaller arms and tugging me up. It was a security guard. He thought I shot the girl and next thing I knew I was sitting in a cop car with handcuffs over my tan wrists.

- - - - -

I stared at Cassidy with disgust who mouthed _I'm sorry_ to me.

I rolled my eyes at her and slung my duffle bag over my shoulder and climbed up the rest of the steps to the bus.

I looked at the bus and there were 4 other girls sitting there as well, one was very small and Asian, she had a tattoo of a heart on her neck and she had red streaks throughout her silky hair.

_Who would get a tattoo on their neck?_

There was an African American as well, she had the prettiest hair I had ever seen, perfectly spiral curled and it hung just to her chest, she had dark skin and deep brown eyes, she was sitting there staring out the window like it was the worse thing in the world to be on this bus.

_I don't blame ya hunny._

Next to her was a girl with chestnut brown hair that was cut just to her ears with honey brown streaks in them, she had gray eyes, and a nice tan. She was sitting there with her headphones listening to what I could tell was The Donnas.

There was also a blonde who perfectly resembled a Barbie doll with a cell phone attached to her ear, "I know what you mean Molly, this place sucks, and it reeks, and my hair is going to be so frizzy,"

I laughed to myself. Not that I wasn't much less of a girly girl than she was.

I had wavy black hair that hung to my collarbone, big brown eyes, about 122 pounds and probably 5'5. I was wearing a green off the shoulder tee shirt that showed my pierced bellybutton and a fringed light blue jean skirt that hung just to my thighs with a pair of clean white K-Swiss sneakers. Just like Justin and April, I never would be in a gang. It was only Dillon and Cassidy just because she would do whatever it took for Dillon to be her boyfriend. But there was one thing I hated about myself, my breasts, they were pretty big and round and that was almost the only reason guys asked me out. To get me into the sack. The only time that ever happened was at a party, when someone slipped me ecstasy and I didn't know what I was doing.

I sat down across the aisle from Barbie who was still on her cell phone "Love ya girl, I better go...wait, what? Oh my God, put him on the phone...Hi Billy! Yeah I don't know why I'm here...really? Really? I would love to go to the dance with you...wait I won't be h-here!" and with that she burst into tears and then got her phone confiscated by a big burly security guard.

"Ugh! Dude, Billy was like asking me to Homecoming!" she whined.

Two seconds later she turned to me, "Hi, I'm Maddie!" she said with a pearly white smile.

"Manuela, but my friends call me Manny,"

"Manny and Maddie, its fate! Well my real name's Madison and yours is Manuela but still, fate,"

I nodded at her and then turned away.

_Please don't keep talking._

"So what are you in here for?" Maddie asked.

_Saw that coming._

I turned back to her, "Something I didn't do,"

Maddie nodded, "Me too, my friend stole like four thongs from Abercrombie, but she slipped it into my purse and I got caught, and now I can't go to Abercrombie anymore and I'm getting sent to some camp, and Abercrombie is my favorite store!"

I looked at her outfit. Of course it was all Abercrombie except for her white thong platform flip-flops. She was wearing this white baby tee belly shirt that showed off her tan flat stomach and pierced belly button that said: _Dudes Prefer Blondes _and a light denim five pocket mini skirt. Her golden blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her sunglasses were planted on top of her head.

"Bummer," I said sarcastically and opened up my duffle bag, reaching in to grab my headphones but as I reached for it something fell out and Maddie reached for it.

"Who's the hottie in the picture? Boyfriend?" she asked.

"No," I said taking the picture out of her hand, "Brother,"

"He's really cute. Is that you in the picture with him?"

I nodded.

"You looked different,"

I looked at the picture.

I was about the same height, a little skinnier and not as developed.

I began to think about my brother and when this picture was taken, he was 15 and I was 14, it was 2 years ago. I felt a tear tingle in my eye, I hadn't seen him since a week after this photo was taken.

"What's his name?" Maddie asked.

I had forgotten she was even right next to me, I turned to face her, "What?"

"Your brother...his name?"

"Oh, Jose,"

Maddie nodded, "I didn't see him outside waving you off..."

"He didn't come. He couldn't. My parents got a divorce last summer, but before, my mom had cheated on my dad and he walked out on us. Jose was really pissed at my mom and he left too. In the middle of the night. He called me a lot but most of the time I didn't get the messages because my mom wasn't happy with him. 2 months later I went to visit my dad, and Jose was gone. He stole something and he got sent to a Juvenile Detention Camp. My dad said he didn't know what Jose stole. But I did. Jose adored animals and he always said he would never by an animal from a pet shop, he said what the way they kept them in cages was wrong. I knew he was trying to save one of the animals. I haven't seen Jose since the day before he left that night," I said.

Maddie stared at me wide eyed, "Wow. Did you guys have a good relationship?"

I nodded, "The best. He was my best friend and I was his, and I really miss him."

"I would think so," Maddie said and leaned back in her seat, "my brother got killed in a drive by a year ago, he was only 9 and wouldn't even imagine doing anything so horrid, and it's partly my fault he died," Maddie said, tears filling her eyes.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because, the guy who shot him was my ex boyfriend, and it was because I wouldn't put out for him, and I mean why would I? I was fourteen and he was seventeen. I thought it would be so cool to have an older boyfriend, I was so wrong. He thought killing Luke would be the perfect revenge. Luke was just sitting outside on our tree swing, laughing as our dog jumped around the tree in a circle as high as he could, and I would keep on chasing our dog and falling over. And then Alec drove by, shot off the gun and killed both my brother and my dog. I was behind a tree, fallen over and I wasn't able to get shot or help my brother. He died instantly, he has a really week heart. I hate Alec. And do you wanna know the worst part?"

I nodded.

"He never got arrested, never. I tried to tell them who it was but they didn't believe me, no proof,"

"Wow..." I said, amazed how we had both came clean so fast.

Maddie wiped tears from her eyes and leaned her head against a pillow that she had propped up against the window, "I'm pretty tired, see you at camp," and with that her eyes closed.

I tucked the picture back into my bag and then flipped on my walkman listening to Good Charlotte's song _The Chronicles of Life and Death _on the "life" version of the CD titled the same as the song.

I ended up falling asleep twenty minutes later.

- - - - -

"UP!" I heard somebody yell, I opened my eyes with a start and looked around the bus, Maddie sat up too, her eyes half-lidded. I looked over and saw the Security Guard standing up.

The girls in the back both stood up so Maddie and I did the same.  
I tucked my walkman into my bag and followed Maddie off the bus.

As we walked down the steps all that I saw was something that resembled a ghost town, people walking around in ugly jumpsuits, and holes.

Lot's and lot's of holes.

"Damn, think we have to dig them?" Maddie asked.

"Not sure, but all I'm seeing here is guys," I said staring at all the guys shooting us looks.

"It's great isn't it?" Maddie asked excitedly, craning her neck around, staring at all the guys.

"Ladies, follow me," The guard said.

Maddie nearly skipped the whole way.

I fanned my self with my hand. It was so hot here!

The three in the back were talking.

We walked into a small shack and thank god, it was air conditioned.

I closed my eyes and I let the cool air fill my body.

"Now I see that you all are girls..." a man with a hand full of sunflower seeds and a really weird looking beard said from where he was sitting at a desk.

_Please tell me it didn't take you that long to figure that out._

We all nodded.

"So where is the lake?" Maddie asked.

"Excuse me?" the man asked.

"The lake, you know Camp Green Lake...?"

"There is no lake, it dried up, we haven't had rain in ages," he said.

"But there has to be rain, I love rain," Maddie said with a hint of disappointment in her ocean blue eyes.

"Sorry tootsie pop," he said.

_Tootsie pop?_

"My name is Mr. Sir, from now on you will address me by that name, is that clear?"

_Yes sir, Mr. Sir, sir. _

We all nodded and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to not laugh at the dumb name.

"You girls thirsty?" Mr. Sir asked, reaching in a mini fridge and pulling out bottles of Coke.

"I'm completely parched!" Maddie said, reaching for a bottle of coke.

"Get used to it. You will be for the next eighteen months," he said and handed the other bottle of Coke to the guard and a second bottle to him as well, "for the driver,"

The guard smiled and then left.

"Follow me," Mr. Sir said and walked outside, the five of us trailing behind.

I tried to brush off all of the glances at me and ignore the fact that everybody was whistling at me.

They were whistling at Maddie too but she was grinning at all of them flirtatiously.

I rolled my eyes and then Mr. Sir stopped walking.

"That's the Wreck Room, that's the Dining Hall, and those are where all the campers live," he said pointing to 5 tents labeled A, B, C, D, and E. There was also an F tent but it said Staff under the letter F.

I noticed a gun on the waistband of his pants.

"It's not for you," he said, catching my glance, "it's for yellow spotted lizards. I wouldn't waste the bullet on you."

_Gee, thanks._

"This ain't a girl scout camp, even if you _girls_ were in girl scouts your whole life,"

_Oh, shut up. You feminist freak._

He led us into a shed and tossed us each 2 big heavy orange jumpsuits, "These are your jumpsuits, and you have 2 pairs..."

_Duh._

"One for work, and one for relaxation. After your work clothes have been used your relaxation clothes will become your work clothes and vice versa. After 3 days they will be washed, and the wheel will start again,"

_Uh huh..._

We all stepped outside and were greeted by three guys; one looked like a real dork with sunglasses on his head on top of a big floppy hat, sunscreen on his nose, knee high socks that met the top of his shorts and sandals with a tee shirt and a vest. Another looked a little younger probably in his early thirties, with blonde hair, a white tee shirt, blue jean shorts and worn out tennis shoes. And the last one had brown hair, looked about twenty-five, and was really cute, with tan skin and brown eyes. He had on a white muscle tank and long khaki shorts with a pair of black Adidas soccer sandals.

"Girls, these are your counselors. Dr. Pendanski for D-Tent, Mr. Lewis for A-Tent, and Mr. Rockton for C-Tent. Madison, you will be with Dr. Pendanski in D-Tent. Tillian and Camille, you will be with Mr. Lewis in A-Tent and Manuela and Keely, you will be with Mr. Rockton in C-Tent."

_Yes, I got the cute guy. _

I smiled at Keely who was the girl on the bus with the brown hair and honey highlights we both wound up grinning.

I saw Maddie shoot me a look, obviously upset that she got stuck with the ugly guy of the group. And then Tilley and Camille were both just walking around with Mr. Lewis.

"Now Maddie, you will be in D-Tent, D stands for Diligence..." Dr. Pendanski went on and on about his name which was pronounced Pen-Dance-Key and talking about that even though she did bad things she wasn't a bad kid.

Maddie shot me a look and mouthed _help me._

I laughed and then followed Keely and Mr. Rockton as he led us to a tent labeled C.

"What does C stand for?" Keely asked.

"Confrontation," Mr. Rockton said and led us through the doorway.

There were 2 guys sitting on cots, one was chomping on bubblegum and the other was flipping through a comic book.

"David, Michael, please meet your new roommates," Mr. Rockton said.

"Dude you're supposed to be the cool counselors, our names are Dynamite and Matchbox," the guy with curly brown hair that hung to his ears said.

"Well whatever, here are the new guys, er, girls" Mr. Rockton said, annoyed and left the tent.

"Girls? The guy with straight dirty blonde hair asked.

The two weren't even looking at us.

"Over here," I called out.

The two turned towards us and there mouths popped open.

"Wow...I'm Matchbox, what's your name?" the cute guy with curly brown hair asked, walking over to me.

"Manuela," I said holding out my hand which he shook with happiness and then he went to Keely and the blonde came over to me.

"That would make me Dynamite, nice to meet you Manuela," the blonde said shaking my hand.

"At least they aren't acting like psychos," Keely whispered in my ears with her teeth gritted into a forced smile.

The other guys came in named Skeleton, Roadrunner, Twister, and Blue. They each had shocked expressions but actually treated us like people. That was very nice, especially for me.

- - - - -

"Oh my God, Manny!" I heard someone squeal as I was sitting outside watching the sunlight in the dirt.

I turned and faced Maddie running towards, her blonde hair waving across her orange jumpsuit.

"Oh my God, what?" I joked.

"The guys in my tent are so cute!" Maddie said with excitement in her blue eyes.

"Same here," I said with a small smile.

"There is this one Hispanic guy named Magnet and he is so cute and-"

"Magnet?" I interrupted. _What kind of name was Magnet?_

"Yeah, his name is Magnet, because he couldn't get his hands off of things. He's here because he stole this puppy from a pet store and..." Maddie drifted off, obviously thinking the same thing I did.

I might know this guy.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"C'mon," she said tugging my hand and leading me to the outside of a tent labeled D there were three guys standing outside, one with wild dirty blonde hair, one had brown hair that was curly and the other was Hispanic with a goatee.

"Hey Magnet!" Maddie called out.

Magnet looked up at us and then jogged over, "What's up chica?"

"What's your full name?" Maddie asked.

"You heard it when mom came in," Magnet said.

"Mom?" I questioned.

"Pendanski, what's your name?" Maddie asked again.

"Jose Farber, why?" Magnet asked annoyingly.

My heart stopped beating and my stomach clenched, I couldn't breathe. Swear to God I couldn't.

Maddie shot me a look, "Manny, you okay?"

I felt tears swelling up in my eyes, ready for departure, I blinked them away, "Fine, just kind of queasy,"

Jose shot me a look and then looked me up and down, his eyes grew wide.

And I could tell, he remembered.


	2. Understanding The Language

**A/N: Devilish668 sorry about saying you "hated" it, but anyway, thanks for the reviews everyone, and here's Chapter 2...a lot of it is in Spanish and if you don't know the language...well, most of it is explained. And if you do, and I have it wrong, my bad!**

**Enjoy.**

**Chapter 2**

**- - - - -**

"Manny," Jose whispered to himself, as if he was trying to get all this information in his brain that his sister was here in the flesh.

"Whoa, he really is your brother! Cool beans!" Maddie said excitedly, bouncing her tiptoes up and down.

I nodded my head slowly, "Maddie, can I talk to Jose for a sec?"

"Oh, sure..." Maddie said and stayed where she was, "oh, I get it. Okay, meet me in the Wreck Room later," she said and bounded off, "Zig Zag wait up!"

Jose stared at me for another minute before wrapping his arms around me tightly, "I can't believe you're here! What have you ever done that was wrong? Color out of the lines?"

"Ha, ha," I said sarcastically as we broke apart, "Cassidy decided to let the devil inside her break free. She killed a kid and then dropped the gun in front of me. She claims its an accident but, come on, she didn't even tell me to run, she just let it sit there right in front of me while she fended for herself, the bitch," I said, saying the last part to myself.

"Well I stole a puppy, not half as dramatic as yours but still..."

"It's very like you though. Stealing a puppy. _Típico_ Jose."

Jose nodded, "_Si_, I guess it is pretty typical of me, and I would have made it out of the pet store too...if my pocket hadn't started barking. Adorable _cachorro_,"

I laughed, "_Porqué did tú salir nos?_" I asked, my voice now serious.

"You know why I left, Manny, I couldn't stand _mam_,"

"_Qué acerca mÎ¯_?" I pleaded.

"Could you stop talking in Spanish?" Jose asked me, sounding annoyed.

"You know the _lenguage_, you _hablas español_,"

"Manny, I haven't even seen _mam_ or Roberto since I left home," Jose said, Robert was my stepfathers name.

"It's not like I like him anymore than you do,"

"_Eso es no verdadero_,"

"It is too true," I said, "He's a doctor, he takes out his anger on _mam_ and his..._nunca mente_,"

"Never mind what, Manuela?"

"_Nada_, forget it," I said, trying to get him to change the topic.

Jose nodded slowly, "_Bien, yo missed t_,"

"I missed you too," I said, pulling him into a hug.

He planted a kiss on my temple and then I looked over and saw Maddie running over to me with the guy with wild hair.

"Hey guys, what's the haps?" Maddie asked.

"_Nada_," I said, I winced when I said the word in Spanish.

"Huh?" Maddie asked.

_I knew she wouldn't know it._

"It means nothing," Jose translated.

"Magnet, we know you can speak Spanish, but you can too?" the guy with Maddie asked, turning to face me.

I opened up my mouth to speak but Jose interrputed.

"She's my_ hermana_,"

"Translation...?" the guy asked.

"She's his sister," Maddie said.

"You can too?" the guy asked, astounded.

"No, I told her on the bus," I said.

"Zig Zag, this is my baby sister Manuela, Manny, this is my friend Zig Zag," Jose said.

"I'm not your _bebé harmana_, it's only a one year age difference,"

"_Cualquier_," Jose said, brushing off my comment with _whatever_.

"Man, Spanish is hard, I took it in the eighth grade, I think I learned one word, that I remember, and it wasn't even from the teacher," Zig Zag said.

"That can't be good..." Jose joked.

"What was it?" I asked.

"_Sexo_," Zig Zag said sheepishly.

"The only word you remember is _sex_?" I asked.

Zig Zag nodded.

"You were right, Jose, that wasn't good," I said with a laugh.

"Jose? Mag, since when have you let people call you that gay name?" Zig Zag asked.

_Shove it. That was my abuelo's name._

"She's my _harmana_, she can call me _cualquier_ she wants,"

"It just sounds like the name of a loser," Zig Zag said.

_That's it. _

"_Realmente, estás la perdedor. Tú asno_," I said and stalked off.

I could still hear them talking from my tent.

"What did she call me?" Zig Zag asked.

"She said, Actually you are the loser. You jackass." Jose said.

"The _chica_ is going down," Zig Zag said.

"There you know _dos español _words," Maddie said.

"Zig, leave her alone," Magnet said.

"Don't tell me what to do, _Jose,_"

Suddenly, I heard footsteps entering the tent, I turned and saw Zig Zag walking in followed by Jose and Maddie.

"Where do you get off calling me a jackass?" he asked angrily.

I looked at him innocently, "Well I could have called you a _gilipolas_ or a _mierda pista_ , but I didn't,"

Jose let out a laugh.

"What did she call me this time?" Zig Zag asked, with more anger.

"I didn't call you anything, I said I _could_ have called you an asshole or a shit head but I _didn't_,"

"You are a...hold on," Zig Zag said and turned to Jose.

"You are not calling my sister that," Jose said.

"What? I wanna hear it," I said.

Jose shot me a look and then whispered the word into Zig Zag's ear.

"You are a _sabio boca chuca_," Zig Zag said proudly.

"I'm a wise mouth bitch? Cool, not the worst I've been called," I said and settled comforatably on my cot.

"What else have you been called?" Jose asked, with a tremble in his voice as if he was afraid of the answer.

"A _mujerzuela_," I said boredly.

Jose's eyes widened, "Someone called you a _mujerzuela_?"

I nodded.

"What does that mean?" Zig Zag asked, excited about the answer.

"Slut," I said.

"I don't blame them, you are a, whatever the Spanish word was,"

Jose looked angrily at Zig Zag, "She is not a _mujerzuela_,"

"I've been called a _prostitua_ too," I said quietly.

Jose stared me in the eyes, "Who the _infierno_ called you these?" he asked.

"_Apenas alguno chicos_," I responded.

"What guys?"

"It's not important, Jose, just forget it," I said.

"What's a prosti-whatever?" Zig Zag asked.

"_Prostitua_, it means whore," I said.

Zig Zag opened his mouth, probably to make some comment about it, but Magnet stopped him.

"I'm getting _cansado buenas noches_,"

I looked at the silver charm wrist watch dangling on my wrist, it was only 8:30, "Isn't it kinda _temprano_?" I asked.

"_Si, sino I'm candsado_,"

"_Bien, amante tu, buenas noches_,"I said with a smile on my lips.

"_Amante tu tambien, noche_," Jose said with a wave and then left the tent.

"Wow, Spanish is an odd language, can you teach me a sentence?" Zig Zag asked.

"I've gotta hear this," Maddie said and sat down on a cot.

"You have to _sepa y entender la lenguaje_," I told him.

"Speak the language?" Zig Zag asked.

I shook my head, "You have to know and understand the language,"

Zig nodded, "So teach me a sentence," he urged and then grinned, "One I could use with the _chicas_,"

Maddie scoffed, "Who? Goth Asian, me, punk chick, artsy farsty or Manny?" she asked, referring to all the girls at Camp Green Lake.

Zig gave her a smug grin, "Wouldn't you like to know..." then he turned to me, "So...what's my sentence?"

I thought of the perfect one and then whispered it into Maddie's ear in English translation, she laughed, "Yeah, Zig Zag, chicks will be all over you with this line," and then she turned to me and whispered the last part in my ear, "with sticks," I laughed at that and then turned to Zig Zag.

"_Hola chicas, mi llamo Zig Zag, no materia qué gente decir, soy la mas grande en la planeta. Si tú vaya con mi, tú voluntad ser alfigido,"_ I finished.

"Wow. I'm going to go have Magnet translate, yo Mag!" Zig Zag said and ran out of the tent.

"He'll sure as hell be happy when he finds out what you said," Maddie said with a laugh, leaning back on the cot.

Saying: _Hello chicks, my name is Zig Zag, no matter what people say, I am the biggest jerk on the planet. If you go out with me, you'll be sorry_, was not the worst thing I could have said.

Just then the flap opened and Keely came in with Matchbox and Roadrunner.

"Hey Manuela," Roadrunner said, running a hand through his shaggy black hair.

"Hey, this is my friend Maddie," I said introducing them.

"Hi," Maddie said flirtasiously.

"Hey...you're in D-Tent right?"

Maddie nodded.

"Cool, just trying to find out where the chicks are so I can-" Roadrunner said but got interrupted by me throwing a pillow at his head which he tossed back at mine.

Just then Zig Zag came back into the tent followed by Magnet.

"So...did ya get a _novia_?" I asked.

He just rolled his eyes at me, "Farber this is war, you are so warned from now on,"

"_Y tú eres verdaderemente estúpido_,"

"Same old Manuela," Jose said, placing a hand on his forehead as if he had a fever.

"You gotta love it," I said jokingly using an all American accent.

The greatest thing about being half Mexican, half American was that I could talk in English and imply my Spanish accent, vice versa, or I could talk perfect English and vice versa.

"You always have been very upfront when it came to insulting people in Spanish,"

I grinned at him.

"It's still war, see you tomorrow, 4:30 AM sharp," Zig Zag said and left the tent.

My mouth dropped open.

_4:30?_

Jose walked over to me and planted a kiss on my temple, "_Buenas noches Manny, amante tu_,"

"_Amante tu, buenas noches_," I replied as Jose walked out of the tent.

"Does that mean love?" Maddie asked.

I nodded.

"Okay then, I _amante_ you all!" Maddie said dramatically and left the tent.

"He's going to fight me at 4:30?" I asked.

"No," Matchbox shook his head, "We start digging at 4:30, night," he said and flipped off the light that was glowing dimly through the tent.

I leaned back on my cot.

This was going to be a long 18 months...

- - - - -

R&R!

Peace, degrassichick92


	3. First Hole Is Always The Hardest

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews everyone!**

**Just an illusen: Thanks for the review, I love San Antonio too.**

**- - - - -**

**CoolGirlEmily: Yes, I am a Degrassi Fan (hence, degrassichick92) and when I wrote about Manny Farber it took me a little while to realize I was actually writing her in the description of Cassie Steele on Degrassi. And then I realized I put Stacy Farber's last name on there. But yeah, if you wanted to know what the Manny in my story looks like, I guess, refer to Manny on Degrassi (only without all the revealing clothes)**

**- - - - -**

**Chelseajones: Thanks for the stuff on Magnet and Manny, and what you wrote after that is actually what is going to more than likely happen. And yeah, Manny is supposed to look like Manny on Degrassi (body and face wise, not as much clothes wise) and if you didn't catch on, Keely (Manny's roommate) is actually supposed to look like Ashley Kerwin on Degrassi.**

**I'm not trying to steal Degrassi, they are owned by Epitome Productions, The N/Noggin, CTV, and Canada. And they are not playing there characters in my story. They just kinda look like them...anyway...**

**One more thing, if you want to know what Maddie looks like, refer to Hayden Panettiere on Raising Helen (the fifteen year old) or if you haven't seen that Maddie on Tiger Cruise (I didn't get her name from that though), just with a little bit cooler clothes then what she wore in them. **

**Here's Chapter 3 and keep the reviews coming because you know I love 'em! **

**- - - - -**

**Chapter 3**

"Maldición," I cursed under my breath the word _damn_ in Spanish as somebody shook me the next morning.

I opened up my eyes, it was still dark!

"Who died?" I groaned.

"Get up!" I heard Matchbox yell.

I looked at my watch 4:25.

"Are you insane?" I asked groggily.

"Up!" Blue said and began to shake me until I tumbled off my cot and hit the floor with a THUD.

I scowled at them but hobbled around for a minute in my blue thigh high pajama shorts and white spaghetti strap tank top that rode to the top of my belly button.

"Nice outfit," Matchbox said with a laugh.

I laughed at his joke giddy and sarcastically and then grabbed my clothes, "Where do I change?"

"I just changed right here," I heard Keely say.

I rolled my eyes, "Is there a restroom here?"

"There is a porter back there," Roadrunner said, pointing his thumb behind him.

"A portero orinal de niño?" I questioned.

"If that means porter potty, yes," Roadrunner answer.

"Ew," I said and then grabbed my clothes and hobbled my way to the "bathroom".

I stepped out 2 minutes later, since the room was dark I could barely see what I was doing, I dropped my clothes in my crate and then stepped outside, placing a white visor over my black hair.

I went over to the water picket and filled my canteen. I took a swig and then walked over to the Dining Hall.

They were having what looked like honey cinnamon wrap, I took one. So gross!

I spit it into my napkin and tossed it in the garbage can.

After breakfast-if you could call it that- we went back to where all the campers were standing in front of a tool shed labeled _Library_.

As soon as the shed opened up, I pushed my way through the crowd and grabbed the first shovel I could see, which some guy snagged out of my hand and tossed a much heavier one in my hand.

I looked up at him, he was about 2 inches taller than me, African American, and had really foggy glasses, "You see that red tape right there?" he asked me as if I were a two year old.

"What's your point?"

"That means it's the smallest shovel, it's my shovel, you got that?"

I nodded, "Sure, whatever," I said and walked away from him, only to get stopped by some guy with brown hair covered up by a white baseball cap and a toothpick.

"Smaller shovel, smaller hole," was his only reply and then he ran off to join ol' foggy glasses.

I scoffed at them and rolled my eyes as I tried to carry the world's heaviest shovel.

"Were they bugging you?" I heard someone ask.

I turned and faced Jose-or Magnet as everyone called him.

"Not really, just some jerk who stole my shovel, like I could see even which one I got, I can't even see where I'm go-" I said but got caught off, when I tripped on a rock, I went tumbling straight into a hole.

I coughed up the dirt that got caught in my throat and I tried to stand up, "Help me," I said to Magnet, holding out my hand, he pulled me the rest of the way up and I caught my balance and continued to walk.

"Your section of holes is right there," Magnet said, pointing to a section of the desert where all my roommates were, I guessed, I still couldn't see.

"Do you have a flashlight?" I asked.

"Damn, you used to be nocturnal, what happened?" Magnet asked with a laugh.

"I dunno, I got sheltered?" I asked with a laugh.

He held onto my shoulder and led me over to a patch of dirt, he sat my canteen on the ground and handed me the shovel.

"Now if you need anything? Just try to find me, got it?"

I nodded, he gave my shoulder a tight squeeze and then I heard his feet pounding away.

I stared down at the dirt that I could barely see.

I slammed my shovel into the dirt.

Yeah, that worked. Not.

I stared at the dirt, "What am I supposed to do?"

"Dig a hole, five feet deep, five feet wide," I heard Twister say.

"Yeah, I know, but how?"

"You're like a Martian," Roadrunner said with a laugh and walked over towards me, slamming my shovel hard into the ground and pulling out a shovel full of dirt.

"Good luck with the rest of the hole," he said, giving me a pat on the back and then walking back to his own hole.

I slammed my shovel in but nothing worked.

I grabbed my canteen and took a swig and then realized something, a grin spread across my face.

I took my canteen and poured water into my patch of dirt until it became muddy, I dug my shovel in. Success!

I poured almost the whole canteen in and was 2 feet into the hole when the water truck showed up at around 10:00.

"Damn," Twister said, eyeing my hole.

I stood in line right in front of Keely and waited for my canteen to be filled.

Mr. Sir was standing in front of me when I got to the front of the line, "How's your first day of diggin?" he asked.

"It's alright," I said with a smile as he handed me back his canteen.

I took a swig out of it and then waited for him to drive off and I poured more into my hole, I shoveled up another foot by 11:15 and got my last foot finished by the time it was lunch.

"Damn, wanna help me with mine?" Roadrunner asked with a laugh.

"How far are you in?" I asked.

"3 and half feet," he said glumly, I laughed.

"Here's your lunch," Mr. Sir said, handing the bag into my hand.

"Gracias," I said in my all Spanish accent and then sat by my hole and began to chomp on my bologna sandwich.

I ate one of my graham crackers and took a swig out of my white milk carton and then tossed all of my food into the brown paper sack.

"You sure you don't wanna help me? Last chance..." Roadrunner said, as I got ready to leave.

"Sorry, my hands hurt," I said and pulled off my gloves that had red blisters on them, 2 of which were bleeding.

Matchbox came up behind me, "First hole is always the hardest,"

- - - - -

I grabbed my relaxation clothes and a towel and put on my white flip flops and walked over to the shower stalls.

_I really have to shower...here?_

I turned to see if I could see Mr. Sir or Mr. Rockton anywhere but they were out of site.

_Perfect...not._

I dropped my token in the jar and stepped in the shower stall, which thank god, had a door.

I closed the stall door and stood there for a moment

Then turned on the water which was...freezing!

"_Santo dado_!" I screeched out.

The water at the swimming pool in San Antonio wasn't even this cold!

After a minute, I got used to the cool water and began to apply my shampoo, a minute later after it was all rinsed out, I put my conditioner in my hair, as soon as I was getting ready to rinse it off...the water shut off.

"Ugh!" I said and grabbed my towel, wiping off my body.

I pulled on my clothes and slung the other ones over my arm along with my bag with bath necessities and my towel.

I walked into my tent and dropped them off in my crate and brushed out my hair, the flap to my tent opened up.

"Hey," I heard someone say from behind me.

I turned and saw Zig Zag, leaning against the tent.

"Hi...?"

"Look, about yesterday...I think I overreacted a little bit,"

_You're kidding, right?_

"Are you afraid that if we fought, you'd lose to a _chica_ like me?"

Zig Zag scoffed, "No, wouldn't want you to break a nail though,"

"I don't care if I break all my nails, are you afraid?"

Zig Zag shook his head, "No...you know what? Forget I apologized...it's on," and with that he turned on his heel and walked out of the tent.

"Wait!" I called after, running out of my tent.

He turned around, "What?"

"What are we fighting for anyway?" I asked.

"Whoever wins by the end of next month, gets the others daily shower tokens and gets to take 8 minutes showers each day for a week, how's that?"

"I don't like it when guys smell..." I said.

Zig Zag smirked at me, "Ha, ha, not a problem. Because, I won't be the one smelling,"

I rolled my eyes at him, "How are we fighting anyway?"

Zig Zag smiled at me and walked off, "You'll see!"

**-Sorry chapter is kinda short, next one will be longer.**


	4. Stage One

**Hey all thanks for the reviews! **

**Xylem: I guess I may be a "tad" bit obsessed with Degrassi. I met Adamo Ruggiero and Andrea Lewis from the show at a mall scene tour.**

**Anyways, here's Chapter 4, R&R! **

**Chapter 4**

**- - - - - **

As the dinner bell rang, I stayed on my cot, plotting perfect revenge on Zig Zag.

"Hang a bucket of water over the tent door so that when he...no. Trip him in a...Nah. Diss him and...what am I, 6?" I said as I tried to find something to do to him.

"You coming, Manny?" Matchbox asked as they all headed out of the tent.

"What are you writing?" Keely asked, peering over my paper, which had only a heading on it: _Zig Zag's Perfect Revenge-Part 1._

"What are you going to do to Zig Zag?" she asked.

I hugged my notebook up to my chest so they couldn't see it.

"I dunno,"

A slow grin spread across Keely's pink lips, "You guys go ahead. I've got the perfect plan," she said, sitting in the cot across from me.

The guys all muttered "yeah, sure," "later," and "whatever" and all waved at us before walking out of the tent.

"What's your perfect revenge?" I asked.

"He wants a girlfriend, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah...so?"

"Give him one,"

_We're supposed to be making me happy, not him!_

"Keel, I'm not exactly following..."

"Give him a girlfriend, in the mail, he'll be so hooked on her letters, that he'll space out about revenging you for a little bit and you can come up with a good plan,"

_Hmm..._

"It would have to be someone who knew him from school though, unless we got someone here,"

"It'll be someone from his old school. I remember him talking with Caveman about her earlier today, her name was like...oh crap, what was her name?"

_Yeah, that planned worked out, for a millisecond._

"Oh yeah, Dania Barrie," Keely said.

"Do you know what she looks like?"

"Zig Zag said that 2 years ago, she gave one of his girlfriends a picture of her and she got into a fight with Dania and gave the picture to Zig Zag, its perfect!"

_How is that perfect?_

"How so?" I asked.

"He also said, he keeps her picture in this box and he looks at it every night, and since he's at dinner, we'll steal the picture for a minute to see what he looks like, c'mon," Keely said grabbing my hand, I grabbed my notebook and followed her she tugged me out of our tent and to the next one labeled _D_.

- - - - -

We stepped up the 2 steps that led to the tent entrance and then stepped through the flap, there was a dim lamp that lighted up the whole tent.

I made sure nobody else was in there.

Keely looked under and through all of the cots, she reached under one cot and pulled out something, "Oh my god," she said with a laugh.

"What?" I asked walking over to where she was.

"Look at this," she said holding out a box full of condom packages.

"Oh my god," I said laughing, "Does it have a name on it?"

Keely nodded, "Personal property of Ricky Iverson,"

"Which guy's Ricky?" I asked.

She shook her head, "I dunno," she said and placed the box under the bed.

She dug around more under Ricky's cot until she found a small box, she opened it up and pulled out a picture of a girl with collarbone length auburn hair, she had green eyes and tan skin, and she was very pretty.

Keely flipped over the picture to see any sign of recognition in the girl, it said in very neat cheerleader style handwriting _To: Becca. Love ya girl, Dania, 2002. Next year we're sophomores! _

"It's her," she said, handing the picture to me.

I flipped it over twice and continued to look at it as Keely kept on digging around under his cot.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"We need her address," she said, pulling out a year book that said _Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School, Fort Worth Texas. 2002-2003. Go Eagles _the cover was scarlet and had a picture of a black eagle on it.

I flipped it open and flipped through the pictures, "How are we supposed to find her address in this?" I asked.

"I dunno," Keely said, chomping on a piece of bubblegum that she had probably borrowed from Matchbox.

Literally borrowed. If you get my drift.

I continued to flip through pages until I stopped on the second page of freshmen.

I let my finger scroll down the I's until I got to Iverson, Richard.

"Look, there's Zig Zag," I said, pointing to the picture.

He looked a lot different, this yearbook was actually in color, which was different than the yearbook at my old school, and only the seniors got colored books. He had reddish-blonde hair that was cut short but you could still see his curls. He had the same gray eyes but he looked a lot more scraggly.

"Dork," Keely coughed.

I flipped through more pages until I got to the "club" pictures, I found at least 4 clubs that "Ricky" was in, _Business Education, Speech, Tech Lab, _and my personal favorite, _Home Economics._

"Look! It's Ricky Homemaker!" Keely laughed, pointing to the Home Economics Picture.

The picture was all girls except for Zig Zag. He was standing in the middle of all of the girls and they held up a big quilt that said _Diamond Hill-Jarvis, 2002-2003. _And they all had giant smiles on their faces.

I turned to the back pages that were the autograph pages, not a lot of people signed anything very nice. I turned the book away from Keely as I looked at all the things people wrote.

_Have fun Ricky Homemaker –Chad._

_Have a hell of a BAD summer- Luke._

_Hey Homo the Homemaker, have fun loser! -Kyle_

_You may be a dude, but you can definitely cook better than any of us chicks can say. Have a good summer Ricky. –Tatiana_

At least Tatiana was nice, whoever she was, I looked down at the part labeled MY BEST FRIENDS and looked at how people signed there, a lot just used there names.

_Caitlin. _

_Casey-Have fun this summer Ricky!_

_Becca-Love ya Ricky! I'll miss you this summer!! _

_Justin-See you in July, when I'm back from soccer camp._

_Davis._

_Riana-Infinite X's and O's._

_Marc._

_Why am I in your best friend's column? Anyways, have fun this summer, Richey. Bye Fag. –Dania._

_Fara._

"Richey? I come he didn't tell her his name is Ricky?" I asked aloud.

"Who?" Keely asked, peeking over the book and looking down at the pages, "Whatever, I found an address book, Dania's is in there, I wrote it down in your notebook, lets go, the dinner bell is going to ring any minute," Keely said, standing up.

I sat down the yearbook and slid it under his cot along with the small box.

Keely practically yanked me back to our tent.

"Here," she said tossing the notebook on my cot and then walking to her own.

"Thanks," I said and grabbed the notebook.

_Dania Barrie_

_1100 Maydell St._

_Fort Worth, Texas _

_76106_

_#: 817-555-5929_

"Why would she give him her phone number, address, and email address?" I asked.

"She didn't necessarily, in the address book it said To Becca, and she thought it was someone else's," Keely said, not even looking up from her magazine.

I nodded and grabbed a piece of paper from my notebook and began to write letter number 1:

_Dear Ricky,_

_Hi, this is Dania Barrie. From Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School. I know I kind of ignored you back in Grade 9 and I'm really sorry...I was hoping maybe after you get back from Camp Green Lake (Becca told me, also said your name was Ricky and not Richey) we could get together. You know, bury the hatchet? I would really like to get to know you, so call me sometime, or email me. I don't care. I just really miss you._

_Love Always,_

_Dania_

_P.S. Here's my number and my email _

_817-555-5929_

"There," I said pulling out an envelope and tucking the letter inside.

I licked it shut and stuck a stamp on that I had brought with me.

I wrote down Camp Green Lake's address along with Dania's.

"How is this going to work? We don't live in Fort Worth, Texas," I said.

_Good going genius._

"Who cares? Like anyone will notice," Keely said, taking the letter out of my hand, "I'll go mail it!" she said and ran out of the tent.

I leaned back on my cot.

Stage 1, complete.


	5. Word Vomit

**Chapter 5**

**- - - -- **

A few days went by, all Zig Zag did was taunt me about breaking nails and screwing guys. It was really annoying.

I couldn't have been more thrilled when the mail came.

"Ricky Iverson! You've got mail from, a girlfriend!" Armpit yelled, standing on one of the benches in the Wreck Room as he went through the mail.

Keely and I grinned at each other and did high fives.

Zig Zag walked up and grabbed the letter.

I could tell by the look on his face he was surprised to see "Dania" had written him.

He fought it off though, "The ladies always write me," he said to me quietly as he walked past me, as he went outside, probably to read his letter.

I followed him and watched him open it up and scan through it.

A grin spread across his face and tears twinkled in his gray eyes.

I felt myself smiling. I could tell he was going to get distracted.

"We need another letter," I said to Keely, as I walked back into the Wreck Room.

"Why?" she asked.

"Actually, we'll call, is there a phone here?" I asked.

"That won't work, use my cell phone. Unlike Barbie doll, I was smart not to use it on the bus so it never got confiscated." She said and handed me the cell phone with a red cover on it with black slashes across it.

"Do you have the camps number?" I asked.

"It's on this piece of paper, Mr. Rockton gave me, 555-4845," she recited, I punched the numbers in as she closed the flap to the tent.

I sat on my cot as the phone rang, we could hear it ringing in the Wreck Room.

"Hello?" Maddie's voice answered the phone. That was surprising.

"Is um, Ricky Iverson there?" I asked in a lower voice than what I had.

"Yeah, hold on, ZIG ZAG!" Maddie yelled.

I could hear Zig Zag's feet pounding on the dirt outside our tent as he walked to the Wreck Room and picked up the phone.

I tossed to phone to Keely but she tossed it back to me, "Hi, Ricky?"

"Yeah?"

"Hi...this is Dania-"

"Hi, I got your letter," Zig Zag interrupted, "It meant a lot to me, I thought you hated me, I mean everyone did back in Grade 9, I was the freak, it really meant a lot when I got your letter today,"

I gulped, he really didn't have any friends.

"Oh um, I'm sorry to cut this short, I'll write you another letter, don't write me back for this one, I'll write you back, bye," I said and clicked off the phone as tears slowly formed in my eyes. I blinked them away quickly.

"Are you okay?" Keely asked, pulling out a piece of stationary from under her cot and handing it to me as I grabbed a pen and began to write the second letter.

I nodded, "Fine,"

_Hi Ricky,_

_I really liked speaking to you on the phone. I miss you. A lot. So sorry to cut this letter short but I have to go, Becca is over and we're getting ready to go to the mall. I miss you, summer is not a lot of fun without someone to pick on. Just joking! Bye._

_Love Always, _

_Dania _

I finished off the letter and sealed it into another envelope, Keely stamped it up and took it to the mail box.

- - - - -

2 more weeks went by and Zig Zag was getting 2 letters per week, so far he had 6 letters if you counted the first week we started sending them.

Matchbox lied about the first hole being the hardest. They were all hard! My blisters were getting blisters and Keely and I still hadn't been able to come up with a plan to defeat Zig Zag. But this one was going along okay.

I was standing outside the dining hall after dinner when I felt arms around me.

- - - - -

"_Hola _Manny," Jose said coming up behind me giving me a hug.

"Hey," I said turning to face him.

"So what's this I heard about you getting a new _apodo_?"

"Oh yeah, my nickname, its Frame," I said.

"Frame?"

"I got "framed" with murder," I said applying quotation marks with my fingers.

"Ah. Does that Keely girl have one too?"

I nodded, "Bubble,"

"Bubble..." Jose repeated.

I nodded, "She is always chomping on bubblegum so it was either that or Chomper,"

Maddie had gotten a nick name too, hers was Thong because of the stealing incident.

Jose nodded and then Zig Zag came up and began to talk.

"I'm going to finally call Dania, we've been talking a lot and I want to ask her to be my girlfriend,"

I smirked, this was going to be good.

_I am going to be having 8 minute showers after this, he'll be so miserable he won't even be able to think straight. Life will be sweet._

"_Manera hasta marchar, Chico," _Magnet said, giving him a pat on the back.

"What?" Zig Zag asked.

"He said, Way to go, man." I told him.

Zig Zag nodded and then headed into the Wreck Room to use one of the phones in there.

"Now that I think of phone calls, I better actually call_ mamá _and Roberto," I said and began to walk into the cafeteria to use the other phone.

"Tell them I said hi," Jose called out.

I nodded and picked up the phone, but then I noticed something.

I was listening to a phone ring.

_Stupid camp, the warden is the only person who gets her own phone line, we all share one, now I'm going to have to wait for Zig Zag to get off._

I heard Zig Zag humming the tune to "Walking On Sunshine" and I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing.

Suddenly I heard a girl's voice.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hi, Dania?" Zig Zag responded.

"Yes...who's this?"

"Hey, it's Zig-I mean Ricky,"

"Who?" Dania asked.

"Ricky, you know, the guy you've been writing to...?"

"No...who is this?"

"Ricky, from Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School, in Fort Worth...ninth grade?"

"Nope, sorry,"

I gulped quietly.

"You always made fun of me," Zig Zag said quietly, "you and your boyfriend, Kyle,"

"Oh right, Richey the homosexual homemaker, right?"

My mouth dropped open and I had to resist the urge to call her a bitch.

"It's Ricky, but yeah,"

"Why are you calling me, fag?"

Oh God, the word vomit was coming up.

"Why don't you just go play tonsil hockey with your jackass of a boyfriend, bitch?" I ended up saying.

"What?" Dania asked.

"Yeah, what?" Zig Zag repeated.

"He is not a fag, I know him, okay? He is nice and he is cool and he is funny and he is nothing like he was in the ninth grade in all the clubs and-" I stopped when I realized what I was saying.

"Manny, is that you?" Zig Zag asked.

"Yeah." I said quietly.

"How would you know that I was in the clubs and school geek?"

"And that you were a loser and psycho who suffered from acute paranoia," Dania finished.

"Oh shut up, Bambi," I shot at her.

"Manny how did you know those things?" Zig Zag asked again.

"Uh, um, well, uh," I stammered.

"Manny?"

"Because...because," Bring on the word vomit, "Because I did it!" I blurted.

"What?" Zig Zag asked, anger rising slowly into his voice.

"I sent the letters, for the stupid war thing we were doing, Keely and I found Dania's address and phone number and we pulled it all together for the perfect revenge to make you miserable,"

"Well guess what?" Zig Zag asked.

"What?"

"You succeeded, sorry for wasting your time, Dania," Zig Zag said and slammed the phone on the receiver.

"You ol' psychos girlfriend?" Dania asked.

"Oh go to hell," I said and slammed my phone on the receiver and then ran outside.

I ran straight past Jose who continued to call after me.

I ran straight up the steps and across the porch and into the Wreck Room. Scanning all the faces for Zig Zag's but he wasn't in there.

"Zero," I said grabbing him by the arm as he walked by me.

"Oh hey Frame, what's up?" he asked.

"Do you know where Zig Zag is?" I asked.

"Nope, he ran out after he got off the phone, said he had to get out of here,"

I nodded, "Thanks," I said and headed straight for D-Tent.


	6. Not My Kind Of Romance

**A/N: Hey all, thanks for the reviews...for a lot of Zig Zag/Manny fans...this sort of gets their relationship moving, but it makes a bad turn.**

**Anyways, here's Chapter 6...**

**R&R!**

**- - - - -**

**Chapter 6**

"Zig Zag?" I asked as I walked through the flap of D-Tent.

No body was in there except for Caveman and Squid who were playing War on a crate.

"Hey Frame, what do we owe this pleasure?" Squid asked jokingly, batting his eyes at me.

"Have you seen Zig Zag?" I asked.

"Nope, isn't in here,"

"Alright," I sighed and left D-Tent.

- - - - -

I ran around the camp searching everywhere possible for Zig Zag but he wasn't anywhere. I looked in every tent but no luck.

It was now 9:45 and we all had to be in our tents by ten o'clock, but I didn't care. I had to find him and explain everything.

The guilt inside of me was piling up like swallowing fifty pieces of gum in a row and having them all just sitting in your digestive system.

I began to run through the rows of holes and looking everywhere possible for him.

As I stared straight ahead I didn't notice a rock lying right in front of me.

My boot ran across it and next thing I knew I was falling into a hole, but I didn't feel any dirt, just a soft yet hard surface.

"Ow," I heard someone moan.

I noticed that the "floor" I was lying on could talk.

I sat upright and noticed I was sitting on Zig Zag.

He glared me in the eyes and then got up and jumped out of the hole, leaving me, someone who always had to have help getting out of her holes after digging them, stranded in the pit of a hole that looked deeper than 5 feet.

"Get me out!" I called out repeatedly.

"I am _así alfigido_ Zig Zag!" I called out and then remembered he can't speak Spanish.

"I am so sorry!" I repeated.

Suddenly I saw a hand reaching out, I pulled on it and he tugged me up, but he didn't look happy.

He looked angry and heartbroken.

"I called this bet for fun not so you could just trash me like that!" he exclaimed, his voice booming with anger.

"Zig Zag, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you..."

"You said you weren't afraid of breaking all your nails right?"

I nodded.

"It's on then,"

"What is?"

"The fight, right here, right now, you better hope you're tough,"

I glanced over at the camp which was barely even visible, all the tent lights were off, meaning it was past 10.

"Zig Zag, this is really stupid, can we just forget it? I'll give you my shower tokens..." I said.

"I don't care about some stupid shower tokens," Zig Zag said.

"Zig-" I started but got interrupted when he pushed me in the upper chest area, right by my collarbone.

_Jackass._

I staggered back a few steps but then caught my balance and pushed him back, resisting the urge to punch him in the face.

He grabbed my shoulders and I grabbed his and before we knew it, we were rolling around in the dirt, punching and hitting each other.

"You surrender?" he asked me, breathlessly, staring down at my face.

I could tell I had a black eye and bloody nose with a busted lip to top it all off, he could fight, but I had hit him hard too, he was going to have a black eye and he already had a bloody nose.

I turned him over so I was on top, "You wish," I said and slapped him across the face, I straddled his lap and hit him on the chest and down on his ribcage.

I was surprised when I saw him wincing in pain, I didn't hurt him that bad did I?"

"Zig Zag?" I asked in a near whisper.

"Damn," was his only reply.

"I'm really sorry," I said quietly.

I was even more surprised when I saw his hand reaching out for me, touching my cheek and running across it slowly.

_What the hell is he doing?_

His hand went from across my cheek to behind my neck, cradling it, he brought it down to his face, our lips inches apart.

I felt my eyes close as his lips brushed across mine tenderly at first but then deeper with more certainty. I ran my hand through his hair as my lips parted slightly letting his tongue slide into my mouth, dancing around my tongue softly.

He began to break the kiss, applying a slight sucking motion to my lower lip clenched between both of his and then he broke it completely.

My eyes stayed close for a few seconds and then opened and I was looking straight into his gray eyes.

"Um...thanks?" I responded quietly.

He stifled a laugh before giving me a kiss on the forehead and then closing his eyes, drifting off to sleep with his arms around me protectively.

- - - - -

"Well...well...well, what do we have here?" I heard someone ask.

My eyes fluttered open and I was staring into Matchbox and Caveman's dancing eyes, even visible in the early morning darkness.

"Uh..." I said sitting up.

Zig Zag stirred before waking up and sitting up as well.

"Damn, I must have been sleepwalking," he said standing up, "that's the only way I'd ever come close to you or your ugly and much bruised face, you lying, manipulating, slut," and with that he followed Caveman away.

I felt tears swelling up in my eyes.

Was it just me or didn't we kiss last night?

Duh, we kissed.

Matchbox held out his hand and helped me up.

"What happened?" he asked, running a hand over my face.

"I got into a fight," I replied.

"With what, a lawnmower? Look at you, you're a mess, lets go talk to The Warden," he said pulling me away from everybody shooting glances at the strange girl who was sleeping in the middle of a desert-me.

We walked away from all the steps and up to a nice cabin.

Matchbox began to knock on the door, "Warden, Warden!"

The door swung open and a lady with red hair answered the door, wrapping a robe around her, of course, she had been sleeping.

"Matchbox, why am I not more surprised?" she asked sleepily and sarcastically and then turned to me, "You're Manuela aren't you?"

I nodded, "Manny,"

"She's Magnet's sister," Matchbox chimed in.

"What in God's name happened to you, honey?" she asked.

"I got into a fight last night," I said.

"Matchbox, thank you for bringing her here, now get back to your digging. Manny, why don't you come on in?" she asked, holding out the screen door and letting me in.

It felt so good to be in air conditioning.

"Who'd you get into a fight with?" she asked, walking to a refrigerator and pulling out an icepack from the freezer and placing it over my eye.

"Zig Zag," I replied quietly.

"Zig Zag? From D-Tent?" she asked, running a wet paper towel under my nose, wiping off the dried blood.

I nodded.

"Wouldn't put it past him...but why were you guys fighting?"

"We placed this bet for some stupid reason and my friend Keely and I decided to make this girl who made fun of him in the ninth grade fall for him by sending him these fake letters I was writing. Then he called her and I picked up the other phone and was about to call my mom but you only have one phone line and Zig Zag was trying to talk to Dania but she was making fun of him and I cut in and called her a bitch and I ended up spilling my guts and Zig Zag found out the letters were fake and he got mad at me and he ran out like a mile practically and I followed him and we got into a big fight and then ended up making out and then he made fun of me in front of Caveman and Matchbox and now I'm here," I sobbed.

"You guys were kissing?" The warden asked.

I nodded.

_What about everything else?_

"Well, Manny, why don't you go get some rest? The couch pulls out into a bed, so I'll go make that up for you and are you hungry or anything?" she asked.

"Yeah but, I'm okay,"

"Nonsense," The Warden said.

"I can just sleep on my cot...." I suggested.

"No, it's alright, just let me grab some sheets and a blanket and a few pillows."

Within a few minutes I had a bed set up.

I was lying on it, propped up with pillows.

She gave me a plate of toast and a glass of orange juice.

"I really don't need this type of treatment," I told her.

"It's alright," she said, handing me the remote control to her television.

I flipped on the television and then I heard her doors slam.

I turned to Nickelodeon which still had Nick Nite on and munched on my toast and I feel asleep watching Three's Company.

- - - - -

I rolled around on the couch and then woke up, I glanced at the clock on her cable box which read 9:06.

I felt my eye which hurt horribly from the black eye. I got up and hobbled into the kitchen and sat my plate and empty glass on the counter and then read a note from The Warden that was sitting there:

_Manny, _

_Feel free to take a shower and get cleaned up, there is a sandwich in the fridge and we have chips so make yourself at home and then come to G-Tent around 4:00. –The Warden._

I sat the note down and walked upstairs, noticing an orange jump suit folded across the bathroom counter. I stripped off my clothes and stood in the shower as actual water fell across my body-and stung my body.

I noticed bruises across me and a few scrapes which were probably from my fall in the hole.

Then I began to think of something.

_G-Tent? Since when was there a G-Tent?_

I got out after a twenty minute long shower and dried off, pulling on my clean jumpsuit.

I brushed out my hair and brushed my teeth and then walked back downstairs.

The clock now read 9:52.

It was going to be a long, yet relaxing day.


	7. The Girls of GTent

**Chapter 7**

**- - - - - **

When the clock struck 4 o'clock I sat up and walked out of her cabin and to "G-Tent" I noticed Maddie, Keely, Tilley, and Camille or Cammie as people called her, standing outside, with their entire luggage.

I noticed my duffle bag sitting right beside Maddie's foot.

"What's going on?" I asked, jogging lightly towards them.

"We got kicked out of our tents, since we're girls, so now, they gave us our own tent," Maddie said.

"Yeah, thanks a lot for playing tonsil hockey with Zig Zag," Tilley said.

Keely hit her in the shoulder, "It isn't her fault,"

"Oh so her lips just magically planted onto his?" Cammie asked, tossing her curly hair over her shoulder.

"She's not the one who started the fight," Maddie defended me.

"Guys, just shut up, I don't care anymore, about anything," I said, tossing my duffle bag over my shoulder and walking into G-Tent.

There were 6 cots lying out.

_6?_

"Why are there 6?" I asked the warden as she sat down the last crate at the foot of the sixth cot.

"You'll be getting a new roommate tomorrow, she spray painted a wall outside her school early this morning and the police caught her and they took her straight to the juvenile court house and she got sentenced here.

"Yippy, where is she from?" Tilley asked sarcastically.

"Dallas,"

- - - - -

After a tiring day of digging the next day, Keely, Maddie, and I were laying flat on our stomachs on our cots, flipping through a Teen People that The Warden had actually gotten for us.es

Bless Her Soul.

Tilley and Cammie walked in and sat on their cots as well.

Just then we saw another girl walking into our tent followed by Mr. Pen-Dance-Key.

"Now Lorraine, this will be your camp and these are your new roommates, Madison, Manuela, Keely, Tillian, and Camille.

"And for the record, its Raine not _Lor_raine, Raine," she told him.

"Hey Rainy, how are you?" Keely asked sarcastically.

Raine smirked at her and then glanced at the rest of us.

"I'll let you girls get situated," Mr. Pendanski said and then left.

"So...I saw a lot of hot guys here on my way in..." Raine said.

"Yep, there are some cuties," Keely said, pulling out a bottle of black nail polish.

Keely could do some of the coolest nail designs I had ever seen.

She began applying the nail polish to her toes.

"Any that caught your eye very specially?" Maddie asked.

"Yeah this one guy, he had some of the frizziest hair I had ever seen and it looked all like giant zig zags were shooting out of his head, but he was so cute, tall, light tan, gray eyes, wild hair, gorgeous.

"That could only be one person..." Maddie started.

"Zig Zag," the other four of us finished.

Raine stared at us in amazement, "Ubër cool, can you teach me how to do that?"

"We don't have to, he's Zig Zag, no doubt about it," I told her.

"Show him to me and I'll tell you if it's him,"

"Alright, ZIG ZAG!" I yelled out at the top of my lungs.

"What the hell do you want, Farber?" Zig Zag's voice growled as he stopped in front of our tent. His eyes lingering on Raine.

"H-hi, I'm Zigger Zagger, I mean uh, Zag Zig, Zig Z-Zag, I'm yeah, I'm Zig Zag," he stammered

Keely, Maddie, and I all looked at each other, our smiles showing laughs behind them.

"Raine, and yes, Manuelo, this was him," Raine said, glancing back at me.

Zig Zag let a laugh escape his lips.

"It's Manuela-" I said but got interrupted, not even sure if she heard me.

"Zig Zag, why don't you show me around camp?" she asked, placing her perfectly French Manicured long nails across Zig Zag's arm.

_Keep your hands off of him if you know what's good for you..._

"Sure thing, see you, _Manuelo_," Zig Zag said and wrapped his arm around Raine's shoulder, leading her out of the tent.

I glanced at the pillow on my cot and then hurled it after him.

It hit the dirt and dirt swirled around it like someone jumping in a puddle of mud.

"Hey, Manny," Magnet said walking into our tent, my pillow clutched in his hands, he tossed it back onto my cot.

"Was that your new _compañero de cuarto_?" Magnet asked, sitting on my crate.

"Yeah, her names Raine,"

"She's hot," he said with a grin.

I slugged him playfully.

_She was pretty. I hate her 10 times more now that I actually can picture her in my mind. Damn you Jose._

She had long chocolate colored hair with chocolate almond shaped eyes. She had tan skin, a small nose, and a body a super model would kill for. She had been wearing a black tank top with a splash of rhinestones across it that showed off a strip of her tan flat stomach and pierced jeweled bellybutton with a denim sandblasted mini skirt and a pair of black thong platform flip flops.

Go figure Jose would like her.

Of course my brother would like my newest rival.

Even if he didn't _know_ she was my rival, and _she_ didn't even know she was my rival.

- - - - -

"Thank you so much Zig Zag, I never knew camps could be so fascinating," Lorraine said an hour later as they were standing outside our tent.

"They aren't'," Keely whispered into my hair.

"Maybe it's mostly because you were showing me around, anyone could get absorbed in those eyes of yours..." Lorraine drifted off and planted her lips on his.

I peered over the end of my cot, trying to get a better view.

"Manny, you're gonna fall!" Maddie called out.

As if she were some sort of psychic, I tumbled onto the ground.

"Ow," I said, as I sat up, winding up on the other side of the tent, from where I'd rolled.

"Ugh, can't you like mind? What? Couldn't find any better entertainment?" Lorraine asked with her arms still around Zig Zag's neck but her face turned towards us.

"It's not her fault that you're giving us a show..." Tilley told her boredly, not even looking up from the magazine she was looking at.

Lorraine's lips pursed and then she removed her hands from Zig Zag's neck and leaned down, pulling the flaps closed.

"Now where were we...?" Lorraine asked, her voice purring.

"Bitch!" Maddie called out and then spoke more quietly, "I can't stand her,"

"She'll be fun to hang around with..." Tilley started.

"Not," the rest of us finished and then ended up laughing.

"Hey, Manny, C'mere," Maddie said, motioning me over.

"What?" I asked, walking over to her.

"Sit,"

I took a seat beside her on the cot, "What?"

"That black eye looks like crap, I can't believe you didn't put cover up on it," Maddie said, reaching into a hot pink make up bag and pulling out a black case, "Here's some of my foundation, I've got like 5 or 6 different shades, you just have to find the type that matches you skin complexion..." Maddie said and began to dig around in her case, "Here we go," she pulled out a small container that had a tan/brown type of cover up.

She pulled out a small sponge and dabbed it into the foundation and then blotted it on my eye, rubbing it around so it would cover up my black eye.

"There, success," she said with a grin and held out a compact so I could look in the mirror.

You couldn't even see the bruise.

She put some foundation on the bruise that had been on my cheek as well and I didn't look like I got into a fight by the time the tent flap opened up and Lorraine walked in.

"He's got the best lips ever," she sighed.

"So you guys a couple?" Maddie asked, placing her makeup back in her bag.

Lorraine scoffed, "As if, there is a much better looking guy here, I don't remember his name but he is really cute..."

"So you played Zig Zag?" Keely asked.

Lorraine nodded slightly, "I don't like to call it playing though, just having fun,"

Maddie and I looked at each other and then rolled our eyes.

- - - - -

"You mean I have to dig!?" Lorraine exclaimed the next morning after her very rude awakening at 4:25.

"The millions of holes didn't give you a big enough clue?" Camille asked.

Lorraine rolled her eyes, "But do I really have to wear _this_?" she asked, staring at her orange jumpsuit sitting on her cot.

"Yeah, we're all wearing them," Maddie said placing her hands on her hips as she watched Lorraine annoyingly.

"Whatever," she said and stripped out of all of her clothes right in front of us and pulled on her jumpsuit, with a look of disgust on her face.

"Just think, now you don't have to get your _Wet Seal_ clothes dirty," I said sarcastically with a sarcastic smile on my face.

"Hey Raine," Zig Zag greeted her as we walked outside.

She raised her hand in a wave and then walked straight over to Squid, placing her hand on his shoulder, "Hey there, stud...look, I really can't dig, I'll bust a muscle. Would you mind helping me? I'll give you a special thanks for it tonight..."

The five of us girls all exchanged amazed glances and then stared at the 2 of them, even more amazed that Squid agreed to do it.

I looked back at Zig Zag, a look of hurt crossed his eyes and he brushed past me, his shoulder nudging against mine angrily.

- - - - -

"Thank you so much for doing my hole for me Squid," Lorraine said flirtatiously 3 hours later as Squid finished up her hole.

Squid nodded, "Can't wait for my thanks tonight..." and with that he winked at her and ran back to where D-Tent was.

"He is so sweet," she said and then got up and headed back to our tent.

"She is nuts," Tilley said, shaking her head in disgust.

- - - - -

"Oh Squid, I am a helpless little lamb, could you please dig my hole and do my dirty work? It would be so great; I'll give you a special "thanks" for it later..." Keely mimicked as we all walked back to G-Tent 2 hours later after a tiring day of digging and a freezing cold shower.

As soon as we walked into our tent we saw Squid and Lorraine on her cot, making out.

"Sorry, were interrupting Squid's "thank you" ceremony?" Maddie asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Do you mind?" Lorraine asked, sitting up and walking towards us.

"Do you?" I snapped back at her and went to my cot, placing my headphones over my head, bobbing my head to Nelly.

"Squid, I'll see you tomorrow," Lorraine said, placing a kiss on his cheek.

"Bye," Squid said and left the tent.

- - - - -

Over the week she had been there she had made out with one person a day: Zig Zag, Squid, Matchbox, Dynamite, this guy named Kite from B-Tent, Skate from A-Tent, and Scooter from E-Tent. She always had them dig her hole for them, which meant they didn't get done digging until sunset. She played all of them but it was as if they didn't care.

"So, who is your next victim?" Tilley asked Lorraine, one night, as she lay on her cot.

"This one guy, he's pure gorgeous, Mexican, dark eyes, dark hair, goatee," Lorraine gushed.

I looked around at the looks on my friend's faces, to see if any matched the shocked look on mine.

Maddie's did. She was thinking the same thing I was, I could tell.

"Name being...?" Keely asked.

Lorraine grinned as she said it, "Magnet,"


	8. Too Many Kisses To Manny

**Chapter 8**

- - - - -

"Magnet!?" I exclaimed.

Lorraine nodded and applied lip gloss to her lips and smacked them together.

"You can't play Magnet..." I warned her.

"Why do you care? Is he your boyfriend?" Lorraine asked, closing the tube of her lip gloss and staring at me.

"No he's my-"

"Bye," she said with a flick of her hand and then left the tent.

"She is not going to go make out with Magnet, that is not acceptable," I said and ran out of the tent, following her.

I crashed right into someone. I looked up and saw the wide eyes of Satan, okay, Zig Zag.

"What the hell are you doing in such a hurry?" he asked, holding onto my shoulders, trying to steady me.

"She played you and now she is going to play my brother," I told him.  
He looked at me questioningly, "What?"

"Lorraine, she is going to make out with Magnet, she can not do that," I said and tried to break out of his grip.

"I'll go handle this," Zig Zag said.

"No, I can do it," I said, wrangling out of his grip.

As soon as I walked in, she was sitting on my brother's lap, her hands running through his short hair.

"Get off of him!" I yelled.

"Go away, I know your jealous because he's your crush and all but just forget him, he likes me," Lorraine said, barely turning around to look at me.

"My crush?! You think he's my crush!?" I exclaimed, "Chica you are going down!" I exclaimed and literally pulled her onto the ground, she was now lying on the dirt and I was on top of her.

"What is wrong with you, you psycho?" Lorraine exclaimed.

I swung my fist, getting ready to punch her in the mouth, when I felt arms around me, pulling me up.

"Manny what the hell are you doing?" Magnet asked, when I noticed he was defending Lorraine.

_Lorraine!_

"She is playing you." I warned him.

"Playing him? Puh-leeze, I don't play people," Lorraine scoffed.

Zig Zag walked up in front of me and through the flap, me following.

"Bullshit," he ended up saying in unison alongside me and Squid.

"Magnet, you aren't going to believe _them_ over me are you?" she pleaded.

"If you think I'm going to believe you over my _hermana_, you've got another thing coming _chica_,"

That made Lorraine's mouth drop open, apparently, she knew Spanish.

"She's y-your _sister_?" She gaped.

"Duh," I said.

"Oh my God..."

"So leave you tramp!" Zig Zag exclaimed.

Lorraine's mouth dropped open, "Fine screw you guys, ACE!" She called out, to one of the E-Tent boys.

I shook my head with a laugh and placed my hand on my head.

"Well that was fun," Zig Zag said with a laugh.

"I was freaking out, I thought she was going to play you," I told Magnet.

"Yeah sure, like I'm that _mudo_ to fall for something that _estúpido_," Magnet said with a laugh.

"Well, I guess I'm going to head back to my tent," I replied, glancing at my watch which read 9:30.

"I'll walk you," Zig Zag offered.

"Alright, _Buenos Noches_ everyone, _amor tu_ Jose,"

"_Amor tu también_,"

I waved at them and then followed Zig Zag out of the tent.

"Why are you being nice to me all of a sudden?" I asked. I stopped walking and turned to face him.

"What do you mean?" Zig Zag asked, stopping as well, not looking me in the eye.

"Well you pretty much hated me,"

"I never hated you so to speak, you were just annoying,"

_Oh, now I feel loved. Watch me while I find a container big enough to hold all of my joy._

"Gee thanks," I said with a laugh, staring at the ground.

"What can I say?" Zig Zag asked, turning to face me.

I shrugged my shoulders.

"It was rhetorical...I'm really sorry about the way I acted last week," Zig Zag said, placing two fingers under my chin and lifted it so I was looking in his eyes, "I really like you, Manuela," he whispered into my ear, his voice sent chills down my spine.

I looked him in the eyes and before I knew it, our lips were locked together.

We stayed that way for about 5 minutes until some voices scared us apart.

"Go Zig Zag, Go Manny!" We heard Zero, Caveman, Squid, Maddie, and Keely all chanting.

We broke apart.

"Manny, God damn, why do you keep making all those moves on me?" He exclaimed, removing his hands from my waist.

I took mine off of his neck and stared at him with wide eyes, "What?!"

"I don't like it, so stop," he said and then followed Zero, Caveman, and Squid away.

"Dude, that why she agreed to let you walk her home?" Squid asked sarcastically.

"Man, shut up," Zig Zag said, slugging him in the shoulder.

"She's gorgeous, she's nice, and she's funny, so why would you get mad at her?" Zero asked.

Tears filled my eyes and I turned to my friends.

"You didn't make moves on him did you?" Maddie asked, already knowing without asking the question.

I shook my head as the tears streamed down my face, Keely and Maddie placed their arms around my shoulder and walked me back to our tent.

- - - - -

"Want me to kill him?" Tilley asked.

"Ooh, I'll help!" Camille said.

"She made the moves on him you dickheads," Lorraine said bitterly, playing with a strand of her hair.

"Hey Lorraine, I've got a big surprise for you!" Keely squealed.

"What?" Lorraine asked, tilting her empty head up to look at Keely.

Keely walked over to her and grabbed her arm and pushed her out of the tent, "Nighty night," she cooed and closed the tent flaps and zipped it up so she wouldn't be able to get in.

Tilley stared at the closed flap for a minute before bursting into laughter along with the rest of us.

"Let me in you bitches!" Lorraine called from the other side.

"Now, Lorraine, there is no need for that type of language here at Camp Green Lake," Maddie said, sounding like Mr. Pendanski, "You're punishment is...you're clothes stay in here, and you dig in your pajamas!"

Our mouths dropped open as Maddie took Lorraine's orange jumpsuit and put it in the porter potty in the back of our tent and closed the door, "Hope none of you guys need to use the bathroom," she whispered.

I remembered what Lorraine was wearing, a lime green spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of white underwear.

_The boys are going to have a field day._

"Let me in!" she hollered.

Suddenly, the sounds of whistles and claps echoed through the air.

We all laughed and slapped hands. It was total hell for her.

About 2 hours later I went to check on her, because typical me, I felt bad.

She wasn't there.

I walked down the row of tents, stopping at D-Tent, I opened up the tent flap slightly and stepped inside, I could hear Armpit snoring and I could see Squid's silhouette sleeping with his hand dragging on the ground under him, he was nearly off the bed.

Then I heard sounds, like 2 people moving.

_Probably just the guys._

I looked over, the sound was coming from Zig Zag's cot.

I stepped lightly over there and nearly fainted.

I wanted to die right there when I saw what was going on.

Zig Zag and Lorraine were in a cot together, making out.

_You're dead Lorraine, so, so dead! Whoa...where the hell did that come from?_

- - - - -

I slammed my shovel into the dirt as hard as I could.

"What's your damage?" Lorraine asked, sitting on her patch of dirt, she had actually managed to get some of her hole dug, without any help.

"Nothing you should be worried about,"

_You slut, you._

She took a sip out of her canteen and then stood up and continued to dig.

I stared at her with disgust, she was gorgeous, she had muscles...and she stole my man. The man who makes me miserable. Zig Zag.

_That bitch._

- - - - -

I brushed past Zig Zag around noon when I finished digging my hole.

I nudged him in the shoulder just as he had done to me a week before.

"What is your problem?" Zig Zag asked.

I spun around, "What do you mean?"

"That right there and Lorraine said you were acting kind of distant today,"

"Like she would know anything about me," I scoffed.

"Do you hate her or something?" Zig Zag asked.

"Hate is such a cruel word, no I don't hate her, I dislike her very greatly,"

"Same difference..."

"That phrase doesn't even make sense, but a lot of things don't like the fact that you-"

_Made out with Lorraine last night, gross._

"That I what?"

"Nothing,"

"That was pretty cold what you did to Lorraine last night,"

"Yeah but you warmed her up, so what's the problem?"

"What are you talking about?" Zig Zag asked.

"Nothing,"

"No, it's something. What the hell are you talking about?"

"I...I..." I could feel tears swelling up in my dark eyes.

"What? C'mon, you can tell me anything..."

"No I can't!" I said and ran into my tent, thankful that no one else was in there.

I zipped the flap shut, but he unzipped it.

He stepped in and zipped it behind him.

I took a seat on my cot, and rested my head in my hands, he sat next to me.

"What are you talking about, Manny?"

"I saw you, last night," I said, choking back tears.

"What? Last night? What are you talking about? I was asleep," Zig Zag denied.

"No, you weren't you were playing tonsil hockey with Lorraine,"

"What? Please tell me Squid didn't tell you that crap. He is not in that much denial...is he?"

"What are _you_ talking about?"

"Last night, Squid saw Lorraine outside and he brought her in and they wound up well...you know, and since I wasn't in my cot, but playing cards with X-Ray, they were in my cot," Zig Zag said.

"That is the biggest load of bull I have ever heard! You expect me to believe _that_? You like her, what guy in this camp _doesn't_?"

Suddenly I felt Zig Zag's lips against mine-again in a feverish and rough kiss.

This time, I wasn't going to tolerate this, I knew what he would do next.

I pushed him in the chest and off of me.

"Quit doing that!" I exclaimed.

"Frame, please, look, I really like you and-"

"Don't even say it, I can't stand you, you are such a-"

Zig Zag was at it again, his lips on mine, this time he was practically toppling me over.

I pushed him off of me and finished my sentence, with more words than I had intended, "_tirón! Yo lata caseta tú! Realmente, rasguño aquello, yo odio tú, tú pequeño pervertido quien necesidades hasta beso yo hasta conseguir placer sólo hasta rotura mi corazón. Yo odio tú, yo odio tú! Hacen mi la favor y nunca asociar con mi. Alguna vez!_" I screamed at him, jumping up the cot, I had yelled at him with so much of a Spanish accent you wouldn't have ever even guessed I knew English.

Zig Zag stared at me with wide eyes.

I heard footsteps pounding into our tent and I saw Magnet standing at my side, panting.

"Why the hell did you yell that at him?" he asked, his English coated with his Spanish accent.

"He kissed me, three times, and each time broke my heart right after,"

Magnet's mouth dropped open and he stomped over to Zig Zag, who backed up.

"_Tú dejó mi hermana alfigido?_"

"Um..._Si_?" Zig Zag questioned, "Are you going to kill me?"

"No, but you are going to wish you were dead when I'm done with you!" Magnet said and tackled Zig Zag.

"_Jose, apagado de lo! Ahora_!" I yelled, pulling him off of Zig Zag.

Magnet turned and stared at me, "Manny he-"

"I know what he did. And just because you're my big brother doesn't mean you need to protect me, okay? I can handle it on my own,"

"Manny, I don't know-"

"Well I do. I don't need your help anymore. I'm not that same six year old girl who needed you to fight off the monsters with a baseball bat,"

"Manny..."

"Jose," I mimicked.

Jose stared at me, tears forming in his eyes, before turning out of the tent.

I sunk onto my cot.

Zig Zag scrambled up from the floor and then walked out of the tent, continuing to shoot me glances as if I was going to jump out with a knife and attack him.

Not likely.

I lied down on my cot and stared at the ceiling of the tent.

As of now, Camp Green Lake sucked.

**A/N: The thing that Manny yelled to Zig Zag in Spanish was: _-jerk! I can't stand you. Actually, scratch that, I hate you, you little pervert who needs to kiss me to get pleasure, only to break my heart. I hate you, I hate you! Do me a favor and never associate with me. Ever! _**

**And I'm just going to stick this in right now, I've been spelling the word "love" wrong, it isn't amante, its amor. Sorry for the misunderstanding amante stands for lover so it'd be "I lover you all" which makes like zero since. It's amor. **


	9. Headstrong To Take On Anyone

**Chapter 9**

**- - - - -**

"Hey, what's up?" Maddie asked, gliding into the tent, about an hour later, she wrung water out of her hair and flapped around in her flip flops, wrapped up in her towel.

"Nothing, just bored, and miserable. Zig Zag claims that it was Squid last night," I said, sitting up in my cot to face her.

"Last night? What happened last night?" Maddie asked, sitting on her cot, across from mine.  
I sighed, remembering I hadn't told her, "I felt bad for Lorraine so I went to D-Tent last night, and I _thought_ I saw Zig Zag and Lorraine making out in his cot and I thought I saw Squid sleeping on the other side on his cot, but Zig Zag claims it was the other way around,"

"You're not going to believe Zig Zag are you?" Maddie asked, looking me in the eyes.

I shrugged, "I don't know who to believe, or what to believe,"

Maddie got up and slid on her pajamas.

"I don't know if I can trust Zig Zag...he hurt me like 3 times,"

Maddie shook her head and then flipped on her headphones and I heard her belting out the words to Kelis' _Milkshake_.

I sat up and walked out of the tent and into the sunlight.

I looked over to see if I could see Lorraine or Squid anywhere.

I walked down the rows of holes that D-Tent had dug, I needed to ask him a few questions.

I ran over to Armpit who was getting out of his hole.

"Sup Frame?" Armpit asked, trying to jump out of his hole, it didn't work, he fell back in.

"Have you seen Squid anywhere?" I asked.

"I wouldn't bug him," Caveman said from his hole.

"Why...?" I asked.

Armpit managed out of his hole and took my arm, pulling me to a hole.

"Look down," he whispered into my ear.

I looked down and saw Lorraine and Squid making out at the bottom of the hole.

"Were they the two that were making out last night?" I asked quietly, backing away from the hole.

Armpit nodded, "She's been all over him since he found her last night, and they make a cute couple, really. "And now you can have Zig Zag all to yourself," Armpit said with a cheesy grin.

"What do you mean? I don't like Zig Zag,"

_Liar, liar, pants on fire. _

"Who are you lying to...me or yourself?" and with that Armpit walked off, carrying his shovel over his shoulder, "You're actually lying to the both of us! Only I know the truth without question!" he called back to me.

I sunk to the ground and rested my head in my palms.

I was not lying.

I hated lying.

_Liar, liar-_

"Oh shut up already!" I yelled aloud, Caveman turned to face me and Squid peeked out of his hole.

I cursed at myself and then got up from the ground and went back to my tent.

- - - - -

As I walked back to my tent I saw Zig Zag walking towards me.

I gulped and continued to walk forward.

His wide eyes were watching my body as I walked, I began to feel sweaty. I brushed past him quickly and slid into my tent.

I couldn't face him.

It was really,_ really_ hard. Especially since I thought I was falling for him.

- - - - -

I stepped into the Wreck Room twenty minutes later after realizing nobody was in my tent only a note from Maddie and Keely: _At the Wreck Room, come and join. Lotsa Love, T and M._

I saw Caveman and Zero goofing off with Squid (who Lorraine's arm was wrapped around possessively) and Armpit at the foosball table, Matchbox, Dynamite, and Tilley fighting over the remote for the broken TV, Maddie and Keely watching them with dancing eyes full of laughter and Zig Zag squished between Matchbox and Maddie on the couch, reading a TV Guide.

I gulped.

_Time to actually be nice to somebody._

I stepped over to where Zig Zag was, "You do know that TV Guide is from like the 1980 don't you?"

Zig Zag shot up and looked at me, "Actually, its 1972 but you were close," he said holding out the TV Guide.

I smiled weakly, "So what's the episode of The Brady Bunch supposed to be about?" I asked, stuffing my hands in the back pockets of my gray pants.

Even though we were supposed to wear our jumpsuits, my friends and I never listened, I was wearing comfy gray track pants, a white spaghetti strap tank top and pair of old white K-Swiss sneakers, my hair was pulled into a ponytail.

I glanced over at Maddie whose blonde hair was pulled loosely into a half ponytail, she wasn't wearing any makeup (like she needed it) and a white tee shirt with pink track pants and white sneakers.

Zig Zag shook his head at me and then flopped back onto the couch.

_Well that was...successful. _

I looked over and saw Magnet playing pool with Squid.

I felt horrible about treating him the way I did, he was just trying to be the average protective brother.

_Why am I such a jerk sometimes?_

I couldn't talk to him, he wouldn't talk to me, and I would feel like the worlds biggest loser.

I turned on my heel and jogged out of the Wreck Room, not knowing where I was going, just running.

I continued to run until I was completely out of breath and I nearly passed out.  
I bent down, placing my hands on my knees for support and breathing heavily.

I looked around, I was ¾ through rows, I lifted my head up, and my eyes widened dumbly at what I saw.

A giant mountain, which resembled a thumb.

_The most creative thing you could come up with, God? _

Then I remembered reading about something that looked like that a long time ago, it was God's Thumb.

I flopped onto the ground, the sun was setting and I could just barely hear the dinner bell ringing.

I could hear the noises of the campers and laughs and footsteps of their boots as they headed into the Dining Hall.

"You run fast," I heard someone say, the voice made me jump. It was a familiar voice.

I stood up and spun around and saw Zig Zag.

"What do you want?" I asked grimly.

"To apologize, I'm really-"

"Don't even waste your breath, I'm not forgiving you," I said, and turned on my heel running off again.

"Manny!" Zig Zag called after me, I could feel his footsteps coming closer towards me, I accelerated my running and was now sprinting as fast as I could.

"Manny!" Zig Zag yelled again, his footsteps increasing.

I suddenly felt arms around my waist, pulling me down onto the ground.

I was now lying under Zig Zag.

"What? Is this some stupid revenge for that stupid fight?"

"No, I want to apologize and if this is the only way I can get to you, then so be it,"

"Just cool it _tirón apagado_,_"_

"Do I want to know what you just said?" Zig Zag asked.

"I said jerk off,"

"Why do you hate me?"

That startled me.

_Other way around beef-head. _

"What?!" I exclaimed, pushing him off of me.

Zig Zag stared at me as I jumped up.

"You obviously hate me. That or you're in serious denial,"

"What would I be in denial about?" Zig Zag asked.

_Gee...let me think about that..._

"Liking me," I replied.

"Hold it, what?! You think I actually like _you_?"

"Well if you don't you have a really bad way of showing it,"

"What? When have I ever given you a single sign that I liked you?"

"Kiss number 1, number 2, number 3, _and_ number 4"

"That wasn't because I liked you, it's been a while since I've kissed a girl, I just wanted to remember what it felt like..."

"You mean to know what it felt like, face it, you've never been kissed,"

"Yeah? Well why the hell would you care?! You have, you're gorgeous,"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You can get a kiss, I however can't. My first kiss was that night when we fought,"

"Well you know what, I think I know why you've never been able to get a kiss. And it has nothing to do with your looks,"

Zig Zag opened his mouth to speak but I cut him off, "It's because you're a jerk! Maybe if you would actually treat a girl like a person instead of some trophy you can flaunt in front of your friends, Dania would have liked you, but no, you just have to act all cocky and like a royal jerk." I said and turned to stalk off, leaving him looking stunned, I spun back around for a second, "And I was not kidding when I said I hated you, and certainly not when I called you a pervert," and with that I turned around again and ran off back to my tent.

- - - - -

"You're cheeks are like pink," Maddie said, looking up from her magazine as I ran inside our tent, zipping up the tent.

"What's up?" Keely asked.

"Nothing, just telling Zig Zag off," I replied.

"Again?" Maddie asked boredly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, near offended.

"If you like him why don't you just tell him?" Keely asked.

_You should have seen the argument I just had 10 minutes ago._

"I hate him, how could you possibly think I like that _thing_?"

"Because it's obvious," Maddie scoffed with a "_don't you know anything?" _tone.

"You can believe what you want, I don't like him," I said and flopped onto my cot.

"Whatever," Maddie said and continued to look at her magazine.

Just then I heard a tapping on the flap. I shot up to get it but Keely stopped me, "It's for me," she said and unzipped the flap, I saw Roadrunner on the other side.

"Hey babe," he said, scooping her up and planting a kiss on her lips as they staggered out of the tent.

I let out a laugh and leaned down on my cot.

Whatever they said, I was not interested in Zig Zag.

_Get real...who am I kidding anymore?_

Don't answer that.


	10. Kissing and Other Horrible Things

**Naughty-By-Nature: thanks for the tips. This chapter definitely gets more borderline with the Zig/Manny pairing, but still not completely...I'm trying to get a tad bit of a storyline in there and this chapter has something drastic yet kind of knew-it-would-happen plot. I hope everyone likes it and here is Chapter 10.**

**Chapter 10**

**- - - - -**

Three months went by, each day getting blisters and icy showers, trying to avoid Magnet and Zig Zag at all costs, and covering my head up with a pillow as my friends rambled on about romances, namely mine and Zig Zag's.

I wiped a bead of sweat off of my forehead as I trudged back to my tent.

It was now mid August, I remembered that my school started on the last day of August, _my senior year_, and I was going to miss it for no reason whatsoever.

I felt horrible, sweaty and grimy and my hair felt like it hadn't been washed in a month even though it was just yesterday afternoon.

I would have given anything to get 4 more shower tokens.

As I was contemplating who to steal them from, I felt somebody's body hitting up against mine.

"Walk much?" a familiar voice asked sarcastically.

I looked up into Zig Zag's eyes.

"Can I borrow your shower tokens?" I shot out quickly.

"Why?"

"I feel awful, I just need a shower, and you can live one day without one...can't you?" I pleaded.

Zig Zag rolled his eyes at me, "And I would do this for you because...?"

"Please!" I begged.

"On one condition," Zig Zag said.

_This should be interesting._

"What?" I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

_What if he makes me streak and run through the whole camp screaming?_

"You have to kiss me." Zig Zag replied.

_I'd rather streak._

"R-right here?"

Zig Zag shook his head, "In here," he said tugging me into a tent.

"Whose tent is this?" I asked.

"The Staff's," he replied sheepishly.

"The _staff's_?" I repeated.

Zig Zag grinned and nodded.

I sighed, "Fine let's get this over with," I said and leaned my face in closer to his and vice versa.

I was expecting a short peck. Not what I got.

As soon as his lips touched mine, the world erased and I was in an alternate universe full of passion and heat.

His tongue pressed up against my closed lips firmly and I let him slide in without a second thought, our tongues danced around each other as my hands reached under his tee shirt, feeling his abs and muscles and running my hand over his torso.

His hands ran through my hair as his lips left mine and trailed to my neck, giving me soft kisses before sucking gently and then deeper with more certainty.

Eventually, he slowed down the sucking, giving it one soft kiss and then planting one more on my lips.

Our lips broke apart and my eyes stayed closed.

I felt some cold things planting in my palms, I opened up my eyes and saw his shower tokens.

"Thanks," I said with a grateful smile.

Zig Zag returned it, "It was worth it...later,"

I placed the tokens in my jumpsuit pockets and then reached my hand back out to Zig Zag, pulling him towards me.

This time, nothing was stopping me from making the first move. I didn't even care if he told everybody I did it.

"I knew you couldn't resist me," he said with a cocky grin.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and he wrapped his around my waist as our lips crashed together in an earth shattering kiss.

"What do we have here?" we heard a stern, gruff voice that scared us apart.

I turned and saw Mr. Sir standing at the entrance with Mr. Pendanski.

"Uh...um...it's just that....uh...well...we...and....you...and well..." Zig Zag stammered.

"You two come with me," Mr. Sir said stepping inside the tent, grabbing one of my hands in his and Zig Zag's in his other.

"Let's just see what the Warden has to say about this." Mr. Sir replied wickedly as he yanked us towards her cabin.

_Whoa...what just happened? _

_Please oh please say I'm on crack, just please say someone slipped me drugs during lunch or something. How the hell did I wind up kissing him, wanting to kiss him?_

- - - - -

"I'm not surprised," The Warden said, sitting on her couch with Mr. Sir, staring at each of us, we were sitting in cushioned chairs across from the couch.

"What?" Mr. Sir asked, his head shooting up.

_Ha-Ha._

"This is the fourth set of kids we have caught, Keely and Roadrunner three times, Squid and Lorraine practically every day, Magnet and Maddie quite a few times and now Squid and Manny,"

_Magnet and Maddie? _

"What are we going to do about it?" Mr. Sir asked.

_Please don't say it...please don't say it..._

The Warden sighed deeply, "I don't think Camp Green Lake can be coed anymore,"

_Shit, saw that coming._

I felt tears stinging my eyes, "No! This is the only time I can ever see my brother!" I cried out.

_So I haven't said one word to him in three months but still, at least I can see him._

"I haven't even seen you and your brother speaking," The Warden replied.

_Well if you wanna nitpick..._

"It's not fair!" I sobbed.

"All we even deal with anymore is teenager shenanigans involving kissing and sex,"

_Sex?_

"So you just wanna kick all the girls out?" Zig Zag questioned.

"This is a detention camp, not a hanky panky camp. It's the only thing we can do."

"What about gay kids? It's the same for them,"

"They're gay kids here?" Mr. Sir asked gruffly.

_Yeah...you're one of them._

"Well I've always had my thoughts about Zero..." Zig Zag joked.

I slugged him, "You were the one people called fag in high school,"

Zig Zag's face deepened and his eyes glistened.

"Sorry..." I said softly, "That was out of line,"

"I just don't think we can do this coed thing anymore," The Warden said.

"Look, I'm sorry that Zig Zag and I kissed, but don't take it out on everyone,"

Zig Zag turned to me, "You're sorry?" his voice squeaked.

"Like you wouldn't go brag off to your friends about how _I _made the move on_ you_ and then never say _sorry _to me,"

"You two are free to go, and Manny be sure you and the other girls have your things gathered up, the bus will be here some time this week, and please try to get that hickey covered up, it gives us a bad image," The Warden said.

_Because children digging holes in the Texas heat isn't bad, right? _

- - - - -

"What?!" Maddie exclaimed as I got done telling her the news.

"No," Keely said, "they can't do that. They can't!" she exclaimed, tears filling her eyes and soon falling down her cheeks.

"It's not fair," Maddie replied.

_You're telling me._

"Yeah? Well neither is you not telling me about you and Magnet," I snapped.

Keely's head snapped up and she and Maddie's eyes widened.

"You never _told_ her?" Keely asked.

"You knew?" I replied.

Keely shrugged and I turned back to Maddie.

"I'm sorry, I really like him, you know? I mean it's just like you and Zig Zag..."

"Get it through your blonde head Maddie! I don't like Zig Zag!" I exclaimed, tossing another wad of clothes into my duffle bag.

Maddie's eyes softened and tears crystallized and she turned and continued to pack up her things.

"I'm sorry," I told her.

_Damn I've been saying that a lot._

Maddie just flicked her hand in the air, "Its fine," she said and wiped the tears off of her eyes.

"She just can't keep her lips away from you can she?" we heard someone saying from outside, I unzipped the tent flap a little and peeked out, Squid, Zig Zag and Magnet were talking close to our tent.

"Well can you blame her? I mean this is me we're talking about here," someone else said said, I couldn't make out their facial features since he had stepped away from the light.

"On the plus side, she is fine though, but on the downside, no chance she likes you." Squid said.

Magnet started to laugh.

My mouth dropped open, they were dissing me, and my brother was smiling and laughing.

_Smiling and laughing! _

"She kissed me," Zig Zag defended himself.

"Yeah like she meant it," Squid said and then slapped hands with Magnet.

Tears began to fill my eyes and soon were running down my cheeks like waterfalls.

"Manny, you okay?" Maddie asked.

I grabbed the shower tokens I never got to use and clutched them in my hand.

I unzipped the tent the rest of the way and stepped outside.

I walked nearly stomped to them, clutching the tokens tightly with my fist.

I got three feet across from them and hurled them straight at Zig Zag's head.

Jose eyed over towards me and started to stare as did Squid.

"Manny, what's wrong?" Jose asked, staring at my face.

"Ow," Zig Zag moaned, rubbing his hand over his cheek.

"Manny?" Jose repeated.

"As if you didn't know, I mean this is me we're talking about here, camp slut. And you laughed at it Jose! Squid is the only one who didn't," I exclaimed.

Squid opened his mouth to speak but Jose cut him off, "Manny, no you don't understand. We were talking about-"

"Me! Don't even lie. And you, Zig Zag, I hate you, so much. You are the biggest jackass loser on the planet, I hate you, you pathetic _pendejo_." I said and stalked off.


	11. Dig It

**Xylem: Pendejo means "fool" in Spanish. And this chapter will let you know who they all were talking about.**

**Thanks for all the reviews and here is Chapter 11...Chapter 12 is the final chapter so one more to go.**

**Chapter 11**

**- - - - -**

"Boys are so immature," Maddie grumbled around noon the next day, shaking her head towards D-Tent.

_You're just noticing?_

"Eat the cookie," we heard a familiar voice say.

I spun around, there was Zig Zag, stuffing a graham cracker in Caveman's face.

"See this is why I don't like him. He is such a jerk," I said and took a swig out of my canteen.

I turned back to D-Tent.

Zig Zag was in a fight with Caveman.

Caveman slapped his face and Zig Zag pushed him.

_Go Caveman, go._

Suddenly Zero had Zig Zag in a headlock and was choking him.

"Oh my God," I said, with wide eyes.

"He's turning purple!" Maddie exclaimed.

"Zig can't breathe," Armpit yelled and started to tug Zero off of him.

Suddenly a gun went off. The noise startled me so much I fell into my four feet deep hole.

_Fantastic._

"He was killing Zig Zag, I had to pull him off of him," Armpit told Mr. Pendanski.

I rolled my eyes at them and went back to digging my hole.

"They are so mean to Zero. I mean the counselors no less!" Keely exclaimed.

I turned back and stared at the argument they were having.

"You might as well teach this shovel to read," Mr. Pendanski was saying, "D-I-G, what does that spell?" he asked and dropped the shovel.

Zero picked it up and whacked Mr. Pendanski straight in the face, "Dig," he said and ran off.

Keely, Tilley, Cammie, Maddie and I all started cheering, "GO ZERO!!!"

Lorraine rolled her eyes, "The camp is better off without that pipsqueak anyway, he is such a dumb ass."

"Oh shut up already," Maddie said and continued to clap for Zero, jumping up and down.

I looked back to Zig Zag, who was staring me straight in the eye, as if he couldn't believe I was happy for the guy that tried to kill him.

_Why shouldn't I be? _I asked in my mind, as if he could hear me.

- - - - -

"Maddie steps up to the hoop, she shoots she scores! _Woo_ 2 points!" Maddie cheered, waving her hands in the air.

We were playing a two on two basketball game, with Keely and Cammie.

I clapped for Maddie and we gave each other a high five.

"In your face T and C," Maddie said, sticking her tongue out jokingly.

Suddenly someone grabbed the ball off of the ground, I looked over and saw Zig Zag and Magnet.

"Excuse us, we are playing a game here," I said and yanked the ball out of Zig Zag's hands.

"Leave it to the professionals," Zig Zag said and tugged the ball back.

"Oh hell no," Cammie said, pulling her black curly hair into a ponytail and yanking the ball back.

"Hey honeys, you guys will be back home in a few days, and then all of this hell will be over," Zig Zag said.

"Which is why _we_ get to play!" I exclaimed.

Cammie tossed me the ball.

I began to dribble and then stuck my tongue out at Zig Zag, "Ha,"

Suddenly, Zig Zag reached down and grabbed the ball and ran off with it.

"GET BACK HERE IVERSON!" I yelled and chased after him, ducking past all of the campers and counselors.

I increased my running and tackled him, the ball flew out of his hands and rolled away, and Squid grabbed it.

"Hey thanks, me and X couldn't find a ball to play with," he said with a smile, his toothpick nearly falling out of his mouth.

"Great," I said and plopped down next to Zig Zag.

"You're violent," Zig Zag said shaking his head at me.

I rolled my eyes and hopped up off the ground and headed into my tent.

- - - - -

"Manny?" I heard someone asking about an hour later, I knew who it was.

The devil himself, fine it was Zig Zag! But they do have _a lot_ of similarities.

"What?" I asked, closing the book I had been reading and positioning myself on the cot as Zig Zag stepped in.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay..."

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked stubbornly.

"Look about last night-"

"Don't even bring up last night,"

"No, you don't understand..." Zig Zag said.

"No, _you_ don't understand," I said getting up from my cot, "All you care about is kissing me and then bragging off to all of your friends about how I put the moves on you, I'm sick of it! And I'm sick of you! I can't wait to get out of here tomorrow,"

"Manny, I really like you, and last night we weren't talking about you,"

"You are bullshitting me,"

"No I'm not, the reason Squid didn't laugh was because we were talking about Lorraine, and she is his girlfriend. Now if we were talking about you, Magnet wouldn't be laughing but Squid would be,"

_That's supposed to make me feel better?_

"That still doesn't make up for how you always treat me like crap and-" I started but got cut off by his lips tumbling onto mine.

I pushed his chest and wiped my lips, "That's another thing. That is all you do, I hate it, I hate you, and I HATE THIS CAMP!" I said, tears filling my eyes and falling down my cheeks.

I fell onto my bed and buried my head into my hands, "I don't even deserve to be here. I didn't do anything!" I sobbed.

"Manny-" Zig Zag started, putting his hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged him off, "Just go away. Please just go,"

"Okay," Zig Zag said quietly, I felt his hand leave my shoulder and I heard his footsteps leaving the tent and the flap zipping.

I lay down on my cot and heaved a big sigh. I couldn't wait to get out of here.

- - - - -

I went down to the dining hall for dinner and sat at my table with G-Tent.

"Today was awful," I groaned.

"Hey! I shot a good basket," Maddie said and stuck her tongue out at me.

"No one wants to see your tongue," Lorraine said disgusted.

"No one wants to see you either but we're not complaining," Keely said and took a bite out of her bean slop while I had successfully slopped mine onto her tray when she wasn't looking.

"Hey everybody, listen up!" we heard someone yell.

We spun around and saw all of D-Tent, standing on their table.

"We have one tent leaving tomorrow," Squid started, "one very _special _tent," Squid finished, winking at Lorraine.

All the guys in the Dining Hall cheered.

"And since we are going to miss them so much..." Armpit drifted off.

"Ladies of G-Tent, this song's for you," X-Ray winked.

I turned around back at my friends who all had the same gaped expression on their faces that I did.

Suddenly we heard a very deep voice.

"_You've got to go, dig those holes. With broken hands and a withered soul, emancipating for all you know, you've got to go, dig those holes."_

I was amazed that Zig Zag could sing like that.

"_Dig it uh oh _oh_ dig it. Dig it oh oh oh _oh _dig it oh oh oh oh, dig it. Dig it oh oh oh _oh_,"_

They all sang and them Caveman went into a solo as everybody else beat boxed.

"_Two suits, two tokens in hand. I got no respect cuz I'm the new man, got my shovel, shoes full of sand, check out the tag the names Caveman, uh," _The girls and I all stared at each other before bursting into applause, but we were cut off by a high pitched Magnet.

"_Nah nah nah nah Na Na Na Na Na Na nah. Nah nah nah nah nun nah nah, nah nah nah nah nah nah nun nah nah Nah. Nun Na Na nah, _oh_,"_

Maddie went wild with applause, "Good job baby!!" she yelled, clapping and screaming.

I looked at her with a laughing smile and then turned back to the performance.

- - - - -

It seemed to take us a long time to even get out of the Dining Hall.

After the "D-Tent Boys" finished their performance they went over to us, and I must add, stole our food-not that I had any.

Zig Zag kept on shooting me glances, like he expected me to do something for him.

"Good job." I said, standing up to face him.

Zig Zag's wide eyes widened, "Me?" his voice squeaked.

I laughed and nodded, "Yeah, you," I said and turned back to my tent, "guys, I'm gonna call it a night. You guys did a really good job performing tonight though," I said, smiling to D-Tent.

I waved at Zig Zag and then tucked my hands into the pockets of my once again, not jumpsuit but a pair of sweat pants and walked out of the dining hall.

Suddenly, I felt hands on my shoulder, I spun around and of course, saw Zig Zag.

"Can I help you?" I asked, my arms crossed over my chest.

"I just wanted to say..." Zig Zag drifted off.

"What?" I asked.

"To say that uh...well, I'm gonna...I'm gonna miss you?" Zig Zag questioned.

I smiled which made him grin.

"Well, dare as I say it so help me God, I'll miss you too," I said, and before I knew it, I had his strong arms around me, hugging me against his chest.

"This all happened really fast," Zig Zag said, his chin resting on the top of my head.

_This is NOT comfortable._

"What?" I asked, breaking free of his embrace.

"Everything," Zig Zag said as we neared G-Tent.

I turned to look at Zig Zag, "Thanks. For everything, I'll miss you and maybe I'll see you soon," I said, with a small grin.

Zig Zag put his arms around me yet again in this time a friendly hug, not protective or anything, and he kissed the top of my hair and then my forehead.

I broke apart and smiled at him, "Bye Zig Zag," I said and escaped into my tent.

I could still hear him outside, even through my zipped tent.

"Goodbye Manny," he said quietly before turning around and heading towards his tent.

I watched him walk away, tears stinging my eyes.

_No, _I told myself, _I am not going to feel like this. Not over a guy. And especially not over a guy who happens to be Zig Zag._

Not that I ever listen to myself...

I was bawling into my pillows 30 seconds later._  
_


	12. Coming Home

It has finally came to the end of my story (tear, tear) anyways, thank you guys so much for all the reviews!

Lotsa love, degrassichick92 (Sam)

**Chapter 12**

**- - - - -**

I placed my final item in my duffle bag, my portable CD player.

It was the next day and the Warden had just come in and told us our bus had arrived.

I slung my duffle bag over my shoulder and walked outside with Keely.

I was wearing a pleated pink miniskirt with a white spaghetti strap tank top with a pink lowercase M in the middle with a pair of pink thong platform flip flops, my curly hair was pulled into a ponytail and my black sunglasses were planted on the top of my head.

Three guys whistled at me but they were all jokes, Twitch, the new guy in D-Tent, Armpit and Dynamite.

I ran over to Armpit and Dynamite, pulling them into a tight hug, "I'm gonna miss you guys," I said with a smile.

I walked over to Twitch and patted his head, "Nice knowing you, for the short day that I did," I said.

Twitch laughed, "See you,"

I looked over at Keely who was hugging Dynamite and Armpit and giving them big kisses on their cheeks, I saw Lorraine and Squid making out somewhere near the bus, I could barely see Lorraine's tears but I knew they were there.

I smiled and then turned to see where Maddie was, she was standing with Magnet, hugging him tightly as he kissed her hair and tears rolled down her cheeks.

They broke apart with a soft kiss on the lips, Maddie gave him a wave and then ran up the bus steps.

I looked over at Jose who looked back at me.

I dropped my duffle bag and kicked off my sandals and ran towards him and pulled him into a big hug.

"_Te quiero_," I said, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"_Te quiero, tambien_," he said and gave me a kiss on my forehead.

"When are you coming home?" I asked.

"I'm supposed to get out in about four more months," he said.

I gave him another hug, "Come home this time, okay?" I asked with a small smile.

Magnet nodded, "Okay," he said returning my smile.

"Hey, where's Caveman?" I asked, looking around. I hadn't dug today and I hadn't seen him around camp.

"He tried to bring the water truck to Zero but crashed it into a hole and then took off after him," Magnet said.

I nodded.

"Manny, we gotta go!" Maddie called from the bus.

"_Adios_, _hasta luego_," I said to Jose.

I gave him a kiss on the cheek and then ran back to my stuff. My shoes _and_ duffle bag were gone.

"Alrighty, whoever did that, _dar me mi sandalias y bolsa atrás y no uno voluntad consiga herida_!" I said.

Magnet laughed.

Suddenly I felt someone's shadow over me, I turned and saw Zig Zag with my Adidas white duffle bag over his shoulder and my flip flops in his hands.

I shot him a dead glare took my shoes back, "Thanks," I said and took my duffle bag off of his shoulder.

I gave him a small wave and a tiny smile and ran up onto the bus.

I took a seat next to Maddie and in front of Keely.

"I can't believe it's all over," Keely said, shaking her head.

"I know, it seems like just yesterday I was freaking out over a _cell phone_," Maddie said with a small smile.

I smiled back, remembering the day.

The bus drove off and about ten minutes later I noticed a wooden boat and I saw two orange jumpsuits walking away from it.

"That's Caveman and Zero," Keely said, watching the two, "Hey dude, can you like stop the bus?"

The bus driver shook his head and grumbled something about respecting the rights of a bus driver.

We rolled our eyes.

Keely flipped on her headphones and the whole way home Maddie and I talked about the boys at camp, life, music, and how much we were going to miss Camp Green Lake, even though we hated it.

- - - - -

"Bye Manny," Keely and Tilley said at the same time, pulling me into a hug as we pulled up to my house.

I smiled and returned the hug, "Bye guys,"

"See ya," Cammie said with a smile.

I waved at her.

"Yeah, bye," Lorraine said boredly, barely looking up from her magazine.

"Good news," Maddie said smiling at me, tears glistening in her eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm switching high schools," she said.

"What?"

"I got to Brackenridge right now, but I'm transferring...you said you went to James Madison, right?"

I nodded.

"Well my parents called me yesterday on my cell phone, they moved to a new house and it's actually across the street from yours, so, I'll see you guys later!" Maddie said, with a smile and tears running down her cheeks, she waved at them all.

"Bye Maddie!" Cammie, Tilley, and Keely all shouted in unison.

Maddie slung her pink duffle bag over her shoulder and we jumped off the final step of the bus as it drove out of sight.

"Why would you guys move?" I asked.  
Maddie had told me the neighborhood she lived in a few weeks ago, it was one of the nicest developments in San Antonio. I mean our neighborhood was gorgeous with nice and pretty big and new houses but her neighborhood was like mansions.

"Because we lived in that house since I was born, and it was hard being there after my brother's death and all." Maddie said, "I'll see you later, probably later on today actually,"

I smiled and waved at her, "Bye," I said and ran across the street to my house.

I ran up our front steps and on to our wraparound porch, I swung open the door and nearly jumped inside my house.

"I'm home!" I called out excitedly, dropping my duffle bag on the polished Oakwood floor.

My mom came out from the kitchen, "Manuela!" She exclaimed, tears running down her cheeks, she ran to me and scooped me up, planting kisses on each of my cheeks and then looking me over.

_Who can change a lot in 3 months anyway?_

Actually Maddie and Keely had each gotten extremely tan and I was more bronzed and definitely toned up and sculpted.

"_Mamá_!" I squealed back, I knew tears were running down my cheeks but this was my mom so it didn't qualify as embarrassing.

"Manny is that you?" I heard Roberto say.

"_Papá_!" I exclaimed, even if he was my stepfather, I still called him papa, and I called my real dad daddy or dad.

I ran to him and wrapped my arms around him.

He planted a kiss on my cheek and hugged me tightly.

"We missed you sweetie," he said with a grin as we broke apart.

I could smell quesidillas cooking in the kitchen and the spicy aroma of chili.

"My favorite!" I exclaimed, sniffing the air, "I have so much to tell you guys," I said as we walked into the living room.

I flopped on to the couch and began to explain everything.

My mom got teary when she heard I saw Jose and that he had a girlfriend who happened to be my new best friend.

They were even interested in hearing about Zig Zag, and thought I actually liked him.

Yeah right.

**- - - - -**

The two weeks before school started flew by, Maddie and I hung out everyday and she got introduced to April and Justin, and we all actually got along pretty good.

I learned something else, April and Justin were going out.

How cute.

"It sucks that I'm only a junior," Maddie said, getting into my car, "while you're a senior,"

I turned my key into the ignition and we pulled out of my driveway.

"I love your car," Maddie said, "My parents still haven't gotten mine," she sighed dramatically.

Her sixteenth birthday had been last week.

Sadly, we still had to serve community service, for the past two weeks we had been helping out at the soup kitchens and local homeless shelters and now we had to do it everyday after school for the next 3 weeks.

She continued rambling on about my car which was a silver Volkswagen beetle and sighing about being a junior and only a junior.

We got out as soon as we got to the school and walked into the school.

"Hey Farber, looking hot this year," my old friend Kyle said seductively, coming up from behind me.

"Ky!" I exclaimed spinning around and wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug.

"Ky?" Maddie scoffed.

"It stands for Kyle, and who are you pretty lady?" Kyle asked.

_You charmer._

"Maddie...and I'm taken," she said.

I laughed and rolled my eyes, "She's with Jose,"

"You're dating Manny's bro?" Kyle asked as we walked down the hallway.

Maddie nodded, "But he's like two years older than me,"

"You're a junior?" Kyle asked.

Maddie nodded with a smile, "I'll see you later," she said and wandered off into the hallway.

I heard her scream.

"What the hell?" Kyle asked as Maddie ran towards us.

"What was that?" I asked.

Suddenly I saw someone walking through the hallways, my jaw dropped, "JOSE!" I screamed.  
I couldn't believe it.

"Oh my God," I said, pulling him into a hug, "what are you doing here?" I asked.

He broke the hug, "CGL got shut down, and I've been staying with dad for the past week and a half,"

I smiled, "Awesome,"

"Not as much as the other surprise you'll be getting," Jose said and then ran over to Maddie tackling her with kisses.

_Okay then..._

"So, are do you have to repeat twelfth grade?" Kyle asked.

Jose nodded.

"Sweet dude, you'll be chilling with me and Manny, can't you just feel the excitement?" Kyle asked from behind me with excitement, wrapping an arm around my neck and pulling me towards him, I slammed into his chest.

I laughed as we all headed down the hallway.

"Kyle, you can let me go now,"

- - - - -

I twirled my combination into my locker and dropped a notebook inside when I heard a voice, a somewhat familiar voice.

"_Hola chicas, mi llamo Ricky, yo am molesto a encontrar alguien. Realmente, ella es no sólo alguien, ella es la chica yo amor. La nombrar es Manuela Farber, hacer tú sepa donde ella es? Yo fui la grande asno y yo sólo desee a contar la cómo alfigido yo am y cómo mucho yo amor la_,"

My heart stopped beating.

It was Zig Zag.

At _my_ school.

"Yeah, she's right there," the girl said, I could tell from her voice it was Cassidy, "could you tell her how sorry I am for framing her?"

I turned around and stared straight into my locker.

"You said it was a line that could turn on the girls...did it work?" I heard Zig Zag ask.

I turned around, tears glistening in my eyes, "What are you doing here?"

"I transferred, my old school sucked, so I'm staying with Ma-I mean Jose and his dad who just moved into an apartment not too far from here,"

_Of course everyone else but me would know this._

I nodded.

"Once again, did it work?"

"Did you mean it?" I asked.

Ricky nodded, "With all my heart. And it took me a whole two weeks to get that line memorized,"

I smiled, "Then yeah, it worked. You wanna know why?" I asked, standing on my tip toes, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Why?"

I gave him a soft kiss on the lips and then moved to his ear, "Because I love you too. And it took me my entire all to fight it off, but I don't need to anymore,"

Ricky shook his head, "Nope," he said quietly. "I LOVE YOU!" he shouted out loud, everybody turned to face us, but I didn't care.

"I want the whole world to know," Ricky said into my ear in a low whisper.

"Yeah just because the D-Tent boys aren't here,"

"Does that matter?" Ricky asked.

I shook my head with a grin on my face, "Nope," and it didn't.

Especially not when he kissed me right there, a very passionate kiss, and I couldn't even hear all of the cheers and screams from all the students.

I could only hear the fireworks exploding in my heart.

We broke apart and I wrapped my arms around him in a hug, "Who taught you that line?" I asked.

We broke apart the hug and he grinned, "Your brother,"

"The one I gave you didn't work?" I asked, pretending to be offended.

"What do you care?" he said and gave me another kiss, "This one did,"

_Yeah...consider yourself lucky._

**THE END**

**What did you guys think? I'm actually kinda sad I ended it but yet glad I did.**

**I hope you guys like it.**

**The line Zig Zag said was: _Hello girls, my name is Ricky. I am trying to find someone. Actually, she is not just someone. She is the girl I love. Her name is Manuela Farber, do you know where she is? I was a big jackass and I just want to tell her how sorry I am and how much I love her._**

**Peace out and lotsa love, degrassichick92.**

**Once again, thank you so much for reading my story and reviewing!!**


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